Synopsis
The film chronicles the rise and fall of the world's most feared drug lord Pablo Escobar and his volatile love affair with Colombia's most famous journalist Virginia Vallejo throughout a reign of terror that tore a country apart.
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Cast
- Javier BardemPablo Escobar
- Penélope CruzVirginia Vallejo
- Peter SarsgaardShepard
- Julieth RestrepoMaria Victoria Henao
- Óscar JaenadaSantoro
- David ValenciaSantos
- Mark BasnightFamily Man
- Joavany AlvarezIgnacio Velarde
- Matthew MorenoPablito
- David OjalvoFBI Agent
Recommendations
- 80
Arizona Republic
But for all its missteps, it's tough not to be engaged. Cruz's full-tilt flamboyance is just too much fun, and her more down-to-earth moments can be devastating. - 60
The Guardian
The film places a greater focus on the notion of unwilling complicity than most in the gangster genre, but still struggles to produce much original insight. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
Like flipping through the pages of a pulpy best-seller, watching Loving Pablo has its moments of guilty pleasure but leaves an empty feeling when you reach the end. - 50
Screen Daily
The awkwardly executed English-language Loving Pablo is a brash but ultimately anonymous, sub-Scorsesean number from Spain’s Fernando Leon de Aranoa. - 50
The A.V. Club
Cruz gets little to do in general apart from wear a succession of gaudy ’80s outfits, while Bardem, who gained weight for the role (reportedly aided by prostheses), acts primarily with his massive, frequently exposed gut. Both actors speak throughout in heavily accented English rather than Spanish, a choice that exemplifies Loving Pablo’s indifference to authenticity. - 50
The Film Stage
Loving Pablo had the opportunity of making Virginia Vallejo its star. It should have pushed Escobar to the background so Bardem could shine as a villain-in-waiting instead being gifted the spotlight. - 40
Variety
Long, loud and lurid, with a distinct whiff of week-old quesito colombiano, Fernando Leon de Aranoa’s pulpy Pablo Escobar biopic promises an alternative spin on familiar material by taking the perspective of the drug kingpin’s glamorous journalist lover Virginia Vallejo. Yet she turns out to be as stock a presence as anyone else in this blood-spattered chunk of cartoon history. - 40
The Guardian
Escobar is not without interest, sweep or colour, but bears signs of high-level, edit-suite indecision over what sort of movie it wants to be. It’s an alluring product, inexactly cut.
