Sex & Lucia (2.5 out of 4)

Starring Paz Vega and Tristan Ulloa. Directed by Julio Medem.

Overwrought and complicated, Julio Medem's Sex & Lucia contains some gorgeous atmospherics but a plot that is too convoluted and implausible for comfort.
Supposedly inspired by an Krysztof Kieslowski script, the film is a series of flashbacks where Lucia (Paz Vega) remembers how she fell in love and moved in with handsome writer Lorenzo (Tristan Ulloa). Fearing Lorenzo dead, Lucia moves to the Spanish Mediterranean island that inspired her lover's last book. There she encounters the woman that may have given birth to Lorenzo's daughter years earlier - although the women aren't aware of their connection. As to Lorenzo, he gets involved with a young woman which ultimately results in the death of his own daughter.
Confused. Me too. Instead of the overlapping plotlines and the dizzying time frames, Medem should've concentrated of the characters' relationships to each other. Very puzzling.

Publication Date: 2002-10-06
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=1834