Loving Pablo

Loving Pablo follows Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug trafficker who built a vast criminal fortune and became one of the most feared men in the world, and Virginia Vallejo, the country's best-known television journalist. The two begin an affair after meeting at a party he hosts, and their relationship unfolds against Escobar's escalating campaign of violence and terror across Colombia. The film is based on Vallejo's memoirs about their involvement.

Fernando León de Aranoa directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist. Javier Bardem, who also produced, plays Escobar, with Penélope Cruz as Vallejo, Peter Sarsgaard as Shepard, and supporting turns from Julieth Restrepo, Óscar Jaenada and David Valencia. The production was a Bulgarian-Spanish co-production with a budget of about 5 million dollars, and it took roughly 18 million dollars worldwide.

The film arrived between the director's A Perfect Day and The Good Boss, the fourth of the features he has directed. Ratings are moderate and consistent: on IMDb it holds 6.4 out of 10 from around 24,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.3 out of 10 from roughly a thousand votes. A critics' score of 5 out of 10 from 46 reviews sits close to those audience figures, suggesting broad agreement rather than a sharp divide.