I haven't read to book so I'm just reviewing this movie as its own independent piece.The story is not told in a linear fashion, instead it moves back and forth between several episodes and sometimes it is not clear when something took place.We first see a guy bringing a bloody girl to a hospital, his shirt is also drenched in blood. Then we are taken to earlier times when some playboy guy (Emilio) who gets all the girls walks into a club and meets up with his buddy Antonio, who's the nice guy and doesn't get any. While trying to avoid the chicks after him, Emilio spots a girl, Rosario, dancing seductively on the floor. She then disappears upstairs in the VIP section. Emilio makes it his goal to get her. At some other time, he sees her again and dances with her, and they hook up, so to speak. And then some strange role reversal takes place. He doesn't just want sex with her, he wants to know her. She in turn, is interested only is casual sex with him and tells him that it's better for him to know nothing about her. He think they are somewhat of a couple, she doesn't.It all seems simple so far, she's a drug-using escort/prostitute and guy falls for her and wants her to himself. Then there's a shooting in the club and she drags him out. Later we rewind and see how the shooting happened and why. She shot some low class guy because she wanted respect. So there's more to this girl than we thought. She is from the lower socioeconomical classes but her activities at the club allow her to move up. Emilio on the other hand is upper class and he takes her to meet his snobby family and that ends up pretty bad.So far so good. Then, or rather, earlier in the story, we meet some of the people Rosario hangs out with who are "sicarios"- killers, thugs, who kept the city of Medellin on the edge in the past, and who often did drive-by shootings. In this case this fellow, who is related to Rosario, apparently a brother of hers, commits a motorcycle drive-by. At some point later, he gets himself shot and the family/friends mourns him like some saint. In what is the most surprising original and bizarrely funny part of the movie, Rosario wants him to go out with a bang. They drag the corpse to a club giving it booze and have it get a full nude lapdance. Eventually they bury the casket Mariachi music, shots fired and all. Why this is so important in the movie is not clear. We don't know much about her family other than an early hint at her perhaps being the victim of abuse by her father? Far later in the movie she confront her mother about that.From here things go downhill. Her relationship with Emilio completely fades into the background. She gets closer to Antonio as her life spirals out of control in violence. At the mass for the death of her brother's killer, she shows up and fills the corpse with bullets. She kills some judge / lover who was protecting her and as result ends up hiding in a country farm with Antonio.Eventually the police grab her. Once she's out of jail she makes arrangements to meet Antonio at the club. But some thug gets to her first. And now we are back at the beginning and know how she got shot.I'm not convinced the back and forth between the present and various pasts worked out so well. In fact, I'm not sure there's much of a story here. No doubt, movies with far less script have been made. It's just that what is missing here is something to keep the audience interested or someone for the audience to care for. The climax is the story is lost in the time shuffle. I think the fact that she's a violent criminal while appearing as a high class whore would have made for a more effective twist in the movie. Why the whole story line with Emilio? He becomes irrelevant rather quickly.The movie is long and rather depressing and surprisingly unfunny for a Colombian movie. There is no colorful funny character even though we are dealing here with a couple of street-wise characters. Rosario's brother could have been such a character but he gets most screen time once he's dead and is not likable while alive. Rosario, too, during her good times is somewhat on the depressed side, except when she's on some chain-smoking powertrip. Perhaps she imagines that there are few ways out of her life.Technically, this movie is excellent: the sound, the cinematography, it's all first rate work. I just think that the director's vision for the story didn't work. Perhaps that's how the book is as well. In any case, there was material here to work it into a good action drama movie with a twist. But instead we have an ambitious movie with a story that is butchered by the non-linear telling with a whole lot of dull characters.

I knew close to nothing about the movie, when I decided to see it, so I didn't have any particular expectations. Thank God, because the disappointment was easier to bear.Let's start with the most important aspect: the story. It's a drama. A true drama that anyone can create something so dull and uninspiring. What we get is a beautiful girl from a rough neighborhood, who earns her living as a prostitute and a killer. Wow! What a mix! I believe that was supposed to make the protagonist more ambiguous. The only person that cares about Rosario (and Rosario cares about) is her brother. They share an apartment, and he occasionally acts as her pimp. Cute. This unconventional young woman attracts the attention of two upper-class boys. Will their friendship survive this test? Will Rosario find happiness with either of them? You get the idea, right? Basically, Marcelo Figueras feeds us with an indigestible soap opera, spiced up with some coke, booze, nudity, and a few more or less random killings. The biggest problem is that it's a love story, and it's hard to find a love story interesting, when you totally don't care about the characters.With such a pathetic material, the rest of the crew couldn't do much to turn the flick into something watchable. So they didn't try. The directing is very uneven, with some pretty good scenes, as well as the whole funeral sequence, which unintentionally turned out quite funny, and the dinner at Emilio's house, which was just unbearably bad.The editing comes on par with the screenplay. The transition between the sequences is so smooth as a sand paper. Maybe that was supposed to give the movie a more documentary feeling, but it just made it still harder to watch.Now, the acting. The miserably boring story was a challenge that no actor could have come up to. No-one could have played those characters in a way that would appeal to the audience. Even the greatest artist had to fail in this particular case.To sum up, the main reason for the review is to help me release the unendurable frustration caused by watching "Rosario Tijeras". I was very angry with myself for spending time and money on the flick and I really had to do something about it. Unless you're a hard core fan of the book (maybe it's good, I don't know, I didn't read it) or an upper-class young man with a crush on a murderous prostitute, stay away from the movie!

Really enjoyed the movie, which is a hard-hitting tale of drugs sex and death in 1980's Colombia. It is all shot in what appears to be the actual locations in the streets and poor barrios of Medellin and acting by all the actors is very good and realistic, the music brings back many good memories and although the film is extremely drug and sex orientated it continues on a, reasonably easy to follow, central theme with great flashbacks etc to relate the story. Flora Martinez is superb...and very, very sexy! :-) I hadn't heard of this film before and I see that the original comments were in 2005, it has just been released (not sure if it is limited or general release) in Spain (I'm in Barcelona) but it is well worth going to see - not for children or those of a weak disposition! ;-)

Rosario is the personification of the girl from the low barrios of Medellín-Colombia (ej. Comuna nor-oriental). Rosario is the kind of girl who knows how to survive the world where she was born, places of violence and drugs and basically no love, until she's given the same poison she use to give. Flora Martinez characterizes Rosario in a wonderful way. Some things that don't go well with this film are the coincidence in musical theme with Maria full of grace and some repeated scenes in car over the same bridge. However, I recommend you read Jorge Franco's original book where this movie was adapted from (www.jorge-franco.com). This is the best Colombian movie since Maria full of grace.