This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It's very rare for me to turn the film off and miss the ending, but with this one I simply got bored of the constant shifting of directions and metaphors.I kept trying to hold on to the thread of where this film was going and what was actually happening but it was shifting so much, which initially fascinated me, but then lost substance. I appreciated a lot of the artistic elements and the various themes entwined and even the sex and intimacy felt more real, but the dog scene left a distaste, and from here on I lost more and more interest.If the story kept to less themes and had more continuity then I would have appreciated it more, however it was over-complicated. One of the positives was the actress Elena Anaya- she was the reason I watched this film to begin with. Big fan.

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.

I got this film as a couples movie for my wife who is away for when she got back. It was worth the chance as from Spain rather than Orange Valley CA. Having just watched it to see if it was OK I was really captivated and will need to watch it again to get all the nuances. The acting was top notch as well. You don't need a wife when the film is this good. Only kidding Gaynor! Sort of reminds me of Betty Blue, another good example why European cinema can hit the target always when it comes to this sort of thing.Excellent work.Andy

Julio Medem's award winning film Lucia y el Sexo is certainly a conversation piece. The film circulates around the relationship between Lucia and Lorenzo, the former a young and strikingly beautiful waitress, the latter a struggling and emotional novelist. Lucia is an avid fan of Lorenzo's, and boldly states such when she comes across him at a restaurant. The two embark in a tumultuous and erotically passionate relationship. Medem constructs a plot that integrates thematic elements of magical realism into a non linear storyline, while interweaving characters of past and present. It seems that Lorenzo's novel of fiction plays an important role in the film, introducing both themes of mimesis while confusing reality with fiction. The fluidity of the film can at times be difficult to follow, due mostly to the ambiguity of Lorenzo's literary work.After we are introduced to Lucia and Lorenzo, the film thwarts the viewer six years prior, where we witness a one night stand between Lorenzo and a woman called Elena. Although the viewer is unsure of the relationship between Lorenzo and Elena, we later learn she bears his daughter. Lorenzo unknowingly meets his daughter and subsequently witnesses her death in a freak accident. This paradox creates the climax of the film and marks the point in which past begins to meet present. Lucia, after the news of Lorenzo's supposed suicide, seeks to evade grief and reality and travels to an island; it is there she meets Elena and the two bond over their grievances.Although it seems sex is a predominant theme in the movie, the eroticism juxtaposes the idea of grief. Medem creates an fantastical world where relationships are infinitely connected as symptoms of one's actions. Such actions, and misconceptions of fiction and reality, mimic the organized chaos of the universe, creating an anecdotal example of cause and effect. Love and grief are inextricably linked aiding Medem's vision of human relationships; as one ideology—romance and eroticism—eventually leads to another—death and grieving.