A Disappointing Continuation

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

If you've ever wanted to see a film that stresses style over substance, this is for you. To me, Son de Mar is beautiful to SEE, but there's precious little substance, unless mawkish, melodramatic, manipulative love yarns turn you on. This may be one of those famous 'chick flicks' you've heard so much about. We're about half-way through this film before anything really happens: Ulises (Jordi Molla) goes out to sea looking for tuna, and doesn't come back, leaving his wife Martina (Leonor Watling) and son to fend for themselves. Then, in a furious six minutes of screen time, they bury Ulises, Martina gets married again, and her son grows into mid-childhood. This rapid transposition is jarring, to say the least, and very sloppy: after 40 minutes of more or less hanging around, we're suddenly into a full-blown melodrama, all in six minutes. I think this is called wayward narrative pacing.Five years later, Ulises (as in the wandering superhero Ulysses; get it?), returns to his 'Penelope' (Watling) only to find she's married to Sierra (Eduard Fernandez), an inexplicably wealthy guy (what does he DO to earn all that dough?) who inexplicably keeps crocodiles as pets. When Martina, in great anger, questions Ulises about his absence, he tells her that he'll take her to the island of Sumatra someday and she'll understand EVERYTHING.And here's the thing: he DOESN'T take her to the island of Sumatra. The reference just dies somewhere in the script. He DOESN'T really explain where he was and why he ignored his wife and child for five years. He DOESN'T acquit himself as an honourable guy, and the movie DOESN'T fill in the plot holes that are staring at us for at least half of the film. I can only assume that director Bigas Luna wants us to fill in the story lines with the mystical clues (fish, reptiles, the sea) he offers through breathtaking cinematography and evasive dialogue. It just doesn't work. The narrative 'arc' on this film ends up looking more like a wobbly clothesline.I'm sure Jordi Molla is a good actor, but I just couldn't buy his Ulises as any kind of hero (which is what the original Ulysses was supposed to be). With moist sensuality, he spouts a short stanza of identical poetry from Virgil roughly 2,000 times and each and every time it excites Martina to explosive orgasm. This guy should be rented out to reinvigorate stale marriages. I'm sure Virgil would be impressed. He didn't get laid that often, as I understand it. This poetic 'device' figures prominently in the film, and I had no choice but to assume it was a gender reversal of Ulysses' famous 'siren song' (i.e. beautiful maidens singing seductively to far-off sailors, who were doomed if they answered the, well, siren call). If this is what Bigas Luna is up to, you can see the problem -- he's offering convoluted symbolism in a snatch-and-grab attempt at High Art. Once again, it just doesn't work, at least in my eyes.Watling is a beautiful and magnetic young actor, but she gives us a character here who doesn't seem to have much intellectual or even romantic depth. It's beyond me how she could desperately fall in love with a guy who sports a for-rent sign on his face (as in vacant), oily 1960s-style hair that looks more like seaweed, and one of those trendy 21st-century 'beards' (you know, four days' growth, no more, no less). He's SUPPOSED to be a dreamy kind of guy (I think), but those eyes of his suggest he might be suffering more from overexposure to a preposterous script. But, don't despair, this film is great to look at. Just don't try to connect the dots on the red herrings or think too much about what you're hearing in the way of dialogue. You can do a lost of fast-forwarding on this film (particularly in the first 40 minutes) and you really won't miss much.

At first I thought: oh come on, give me a break... The wandering, dreamy-eyed young teacher, the pouting, rap-music-blasting village Lolita sucking oranges, the white panties on the clothes-line, could you be any more clichéd? But then the story grew on me, with its many parallels to the Greek myths, so much so that I think I'll go back to the source and reread the original material. Some of the sea and water images reminded me of "Sex and Lucia" which I still prefer. Also, in the R-Rated version I rented from Blockbuster, the sex scenes must have been cut. Nothing spectacular, by far. So Bigas Luna likes breasts, but then again, we knew that already. ***1/2

Captivating cinematography. Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing about the script. It's romance at full speed. First thing you know, Ulises and Martina are getting married. But "from loving to not loving", the road is not as long as Ulises believes. Soon enough, Infidelity enters the room and does it's dirty job. We soon realize that Death is already in the room. But wait, she's feeling powerless today. One thing's for sure: it can take a long time to catch a tuna!Leonar Watling is sublime. She captures the screen every time she appears. But the rest of the cast is not as interesting. And there's some scenes where you really don't feel the emotion. After a while, I found myself looking at my watch every few minutes. A few times, I felt like shouting "I get the point!!! move on!" But I have to say that the last scene on the boat is quite surprising and captivating.Seen at home, in Toronto, on March 5th, 2006.71/100 (**)

Bigas Luna's "Son de Mar" is a beautiful love story that is sexy, to boot.I knew nothing about this film when I rented it. I picked it solely because of its director. Although I am not a huge fan of "Jamón, jamón" (1992), there were moments I enjoyed.Am I ever glad that I rented this. It's a captivating love story that has two very good performances, including a gloriously sensual turn by Leonor Watling. The film also features some tremendously sexy love scenes, including one without any nudity.Watling's screen presence is positively hypnotic. She makes Martina utterly believable, a passionate woman who revels in her sexuality and is madly in love with Ulises. Their moments together are poignant and real. The characters are smart, funny, sexy, and we so believe the love between Ulises and Martina that we cannot help but root for them.Parts of this film might seem corny due to its soap opera-like plotting. Then again, that's something Luna enjoys doing. And somehow he and his actors make it work.There are some inexplicable, and perhaps unnecessary moments, including one with an alligator. But they don't detract from the charm of this film. And you've got to hand it to Luna - he knows how to make beautiful women truly sizzle on screen.This is a film for adults. Thank goodness Europeans still make romantic movies for grown-ups and don't dilute them by catering to the lowest common denominator by turning them into maudlin, conventional, predictable crap like many of Hollywood's romantic comedies.If you enjoy unconventional love stories, this one is most definitely worth a look.