VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

secondtake Sex and Lucia (2001)A fascinating, moving, beautiful, sexy movie. Yes, it's about sex, and there are lots of sex scenes, some of them surprisingly graphic. But it's not about sex at all, in a way —or at least the bigger point is about recovery, and finding love, and the power of goodness. This makes it all sound sappy or sensational, and some people might find it so. But I think it is extremely serious and probing. And if this territory is not completely new, it's suddenly fresh and intriguing.And confusing. If there is one stumbling block for many it has to be the deliberately convoluted plot, and the convoluted way the plot is told through several time periods and with interchanging roles, or what seem to be people whose positions alter in each others' brains.Or not! What I mean is, I think it kind of makes sense, maybe perfect sense, if you study it. The key to it all, both the characters and what happens to them, is a writer and his book(s). Because one of the main characters is also the writer's most devoted (and obsessed) reader, the fictional elements become true, or at least get blurred with the truth, and so what the viewer sees (poor depraved viewer at this point) is partial and suggestive and puzzling.Which is exactly why the movie is so good. You have to let go of the facts a little and hang onto the mood, and to the characters (and the actors) who are quite real and palpable. In fact, one of the things that makes this so significant is the high level of acting—the author and the three main women that come through his world over six or seven years. The emotional intensity, from joy (and ecstasy) to horror (and grief) is quite intense.There is a lingering feeling of awkwardness to the production of the movie. It's not just that it's a hair low budget—this is part of the feel of it, and it's quite beautiful overall—but that it uses certain editing quirks and filming styles (like blown out highlights in some scenes) to create effect. Sometimes this is helpful for keeping track of different points in the shifting narrative. Sometimes you are too aware of it. At least the first time.I've seen this only once, and I can imagine watching it again someday. It might well grow on you, getting a little clarity but also revisiting the emotional dips and peaks a second time. One small heads up for people who might need to know—there is a rather too-long section near the start with lots of frank and varied sex, and it drags a bit (and is too self-indulgent for the plot), but then the rest of the movie largely avoids it (not completely!). So if this is a turn-off, get through that part and see what turns up next. The movie never expands outside its small group of characters or its limited range of sets and locations, but it inhabits these places with increasing interest. Director/writer Julio Medem has succeeded at something here. See what it is.

TobeFound Somewhere I am a big movie buff and I have been using IMDb for years but have never written a review. After watching the movie, I am compelled to write my first review. I have never been so angry at a movie. I feel that the director/writer is tying too hard to give the movie some 'art.' It is so contrived upto the point that the viewer feels that he is neglected in constructing the storyline. Too many snobbish metaphors, ambiguities and subtleties leave the audience uncaptivated. As the story goes on, I feel more and more disengaged, thanks to its pretentious taste. My tipping point is the dog scene. First, the writer doesn't have to kill the child. Even if he has to, it doesn't have to be by a dog. If it has to be a dog (another distasteful metaphor, yes I get it), the scene doesn't have to be shot in such an overly unnecessarily confusing way. I know it is the movie makers' choice but I can't help feeling self-pity for myself for having to witness it.

zetes Extraordinarily sexy, brain-twisting melodrama from Spain. Paz Vega (who tried and failed to get a Hollywood career going with Spanglish) stars as a woman who hooks up with her favorite author (Tristan Ulloa). After enjoying a life full of the greatest sex and romance ever, Ulloa discovers that a one-night stand from the past (Najwa Nimri) has been searching for him in Madrid with their daughter in tow. Unsure as to whether he wants to reconnect with Nimri, he seduces his daughter's nanny (The Skin I Live In's Elena Anaya) to get a closer look at his heretofore unknown progeny. The story is deliberately confusing - one's never sure whether the plot is actually happening or is part of the novel Ulloa is writing. Honestly, by the end of the film, I'd gotten over trying to make perfect sense of the plot (I was kind of assuming that the American release was heavily edited, but in reality only a couple of minutes of full frontal nudity were cut) and just enjoyed it for its beautiful images (shot digitally, which I think has its place) and all the hot, hot sex. Paz Vega is a total doll, but, man, when Anaya shows up, holy cow, is she just smoking. There's a long sequence where she wears this black teddy that just had me drooling. Medem (who directed the also quite good Lovers of the Arctic Circle) hooked up with Anaya again a couple of years ago with the lesbian flick Room in Rome, which I am now compelled to watch.

JC VD For a north American who usually watches N.A. candy like movies, which are usually visually pleasing but hollow in the script, this one is a very nice surprise.I'll give a 10/10 for the movie - script, director's performance, cinematic effects, castings (kudos to Elena Anya - she should shoot more serious movies like this one than Hollywood movies like Van Helsing), editing. The sex scenes are explicit but necessary to tell the story honestly, so it's sex scenes in good tastes. p.s. Vicky Cristina Barcelona seemed to be a N.A. version of this one but like suggested earlier before, this movie got more complexity, originality & layers - thus more enjoyable.