Javier Bardem in Loving Pablo (Universal Home Entertainment)

Two Sicario movies and the Netflix show Narcos are proof enough of the international growing success of stories about drug lords and their cartels. As a subgenre, the narconovela is now a goldmine, so it is not surprising that an ambitious, high-profile film like Loving Pablo, a biopic about the infamous Colombian narcoterrorist and drug lord Pablo Escobar (Javier Bardem), has emerged.

Although this is technically a Spanish film directed by a Colombian filmmaker, Fernando León de Aranda, this is an English-language production starring two international megastars: Academy Award winners Javier Bardem and his wife, Penélope Cruz. The actress embodies the real-life Virginia Vallejo, one of the most famous news reporters in Colombia who became Escobar’s lover during the 1980’s, and she wrote the book which the film is based on. Clearly, the filmmakers’ intentions are to produce a movie with enough Hollywood appeal for global distribution. However, the outcome is full of miscalculations because of its questionable approach.

Loving Pablo has slick production values and the proven magnetism of its leads actors. However, what it lacks is a purposeful meaning. It probably would have worked better in Spanish, because it loses authenticity with English-language dialogue, and so it comes across more like a conventional thriller. Escobar was a very divisive and complex, larger than life character, which is why it’s so hard to present a likable monster without making the mistake of justifying his horrible actions. An external point of view serves the story well, in this case of Vallejo’s, but in the end, she doesn’t gain our interest because of her shallowness. A more compelling perspective of the story might have been from the eyes of his wife or kids, who represent the only vulnerable point of this hideous man.

Only in the beginning, when Escobar and Vallejo first meet, are the romance possibilities between Vallejo and Escobar credible. She feels attracted by his political views and the supposed goodwill of his spending his fortune to help the needy. Later their bond seems less about blind love and more about reciprocal interests. The title of the movie is a hook with a not-so-engaging bait, even with Bardem and Cruz on board. The work of both actors here is mostly over-the-top and lightly enjoyable, because even with a mediocre material, they are fascinating to watch no matter what they do. Funny enough, both are better when they are not sharing time onscreen.

A curious aspect of the film is that in its best scenes, Bardem or Cruz are not involved as it focuses on the large-scale conflicts for Colombia and its citizens as a result of Escobar’s criminal actions. The city of Medellin is portrayed as a decadent place of young hit men and teenage sex workers, while the entire country is on the edge of a civil war between the government and Escobar’s armed forces. There are a couple of perfectly crafted action sequences with effective violence and thrills, but they are also disconnected from the rest of the story line. The movie is a competent spectacle, but it needs to be more than that. Thousands of people died in Colombia because of Escobar’s drug empire, and his populist social concerns don’t redeem him. The unforgivable thing about Loving Pablo is that simply leaves you indifferent.