The Crimes of Padre Amaro follows the character of Amaro as his presentation turns from an innocent priest to a culprit of the same sins he preaches against. Amaro arrives in Los Reyes the town he wishes to establish his job as minister in. Upon arriving he is noticed quite fondly by 16 year old Amelia who shows strong attraction towards him in the midst of her schism with her current boyfriend. In the Beginning of the film Amaro reacts to the affection of Amelia like someone would expect out of a moral preacher but eventually Amaro gives in to her pleas for intimacy and they end up meeting up under the cover of helping a girl who seemingly is need of a exorcism. These sins are drops in a sea of disingenuous behavior that is occurring all around Amaro, Father Benito a colleague of Amaro is witnessed cheating on his wife with a local resturant owner and more importantly is funding his new hospital with cartel money. It is almost humorous to also see that the priest who accuses him of laundering money from suspicious sources is also supporting political racialists in the local area.
The relationship of Amaro and Amelia grows to where Amelia is shown to seek something more than what Amaro is in for. The climax of their relationship is when Amelia informs Amaro of her pregnancy in which he responds by asking her to either give it away or abort it. After much conflict Amelia agrees to a backstreet abortion that contributes to her death. In a vile ending Amaro is taken away from the blame and it is placed on Amelia’s x boyfriend. As film critic Roger Ebert expands upon in his review of the movie The point of the film is that through the crimes committed by Amaro and his priest acquaintances it displays that they are just as capable of evil as anyone else but the crimes real weight comes not in that Amaro did something like have sex but that he and his other colleagues went through great measures to cover up their actions and in the process hurt people through their dishonesty (Ebert, 2002).
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