Sex and Lucia

Film Threat Tim Merrill

Medem's astonishing, magical-realist love story Sex and Lucía is easily the best Spanish film since "All About My Mother." But such a statement actually undersells the beauty of what Medem has created, which in many ways rather defies description.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

It's still pretty darn good, despite its smarty-pants aura.

Chicago Reader Hank Sartin

This film by Julio Medem has dreamlike visuals, lush sensuality, a gorgeous cast, and a plot built on elaborate, self-conscious coincidences.

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

Climaxes in a flood of revelations that, like so much of the film, take us where we least expect to go.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Elegant and sometimes inscrutable.

New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein

Fans of convoluted narrative in the manner of Christopher Nolan and David Lynch are likely to be intrigued, although Medem has a far stronger streak of sentiment.

Time Richard Schickel

These people are fools for heedless love and, perhaps, needless complication, and you can't help responding to the heat of their passion.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Anyone familiar with the movies of Julio Medem knows where "Sex and Lucia" is going. Or, rather, knows that it's impossible to know.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

With the story's vivid and passionate women and the power of emotional healing (not to mention the intense eroticism of his hothouse romance), gives Sex and Lucia a dynamic, vigorous life.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Whatever you say about Sex and Lucía, you have to admit that it takes place at a hormonal high tide that never ebbs.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

At times, Sex and Lucia is too precious for its own good; a movie that demands its own flow chart isn't always a good thing. And events turn on one coincidence too many. But Medem's exquisite craftsmanship and full-throttle eroticism make his film a morass worth the attempt to unravel.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

The film is tangled but not chaotic, thoughtful but not terribly deep. Still, it's intimate, entertaining, and most impressive, genuine.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The parts work even if the whole leaves me uncertain. Many movies are certain about their whole, but are made of careless parts. Forced to choose, I would take the parts.

Miami Herald Marta Barber

Medem may have disrobed most of the cast, leaving their bodies exposed, but the plot remains as guarded as a virgin with a chastity belt. That's why Sex and Lucía is so alluring.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

The movie is a journey into a land of wonders beneath the surface of consciousness -- but it's also a sexual ride of unabated heat. You may be confused by Sex and Lucia, but you won't be unmoved.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Medem's stupendously gorgeous puzzle movie features strong performances from its four leads.

Variety Jonathan Holland

A slickly made, intense and powerfully visual take on time-honored problems such as identity and the body's power over the mind.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Medem is one of the few directors who understands sensuality and knows how to make it happen on screen. Sex and Lucia specializes in pleasant eroticism, using nudity, Koko de la Rica's dreamy cinematography and Alberto Iglesias' Goya-winning score to create episodes of voluptuous lovemaking.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A truly titillating and truly convoluted tale of l'amour fou. Perhaps the American remake could be titled ''Hot Fudge Ripple Sky.''

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Medem's film is a bleached-out beauty, hitting our most commanding human emotions -- lust to love to grief to rage and back again -- while only occasionally striking a wrong chord.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

If you're starved for on-screen nudity and sex garnished with art-film trappings -- The price you'll pay is putting up with the director's relentless Euro-pretension, manifested in a tediously contrived plot crammed with absurd coincidences, clunky symbolism and soap-operatic melodrama.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Medem turns screenwriting into a feng shui exercise, shifting story elements like pieces of furniture around a room, as if the best films are the ones that end up facing southeast.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Nothing in this explicit display is remotely engaging. That's because the sex is a metaphor here. In fact, most everything is a metaphor here. Or a symbol -- the picture is a veritable cacophony of jangling symbols.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Both refreshing and confusing, the film equivalent of an ice cream headache.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Isn't a first-date movie. As a third -date movie, though, it's just about perfect.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The sensuous visuals, shot in high-definition video, complement the waking-dream quality of a sometimes confusing story.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

An adept mood maker, Medem strains madly for cosmic alliances, fairy-tale imagery, and fated coincidences, but he triumphs only with two hot bodies, a cluttered apartment, and a Shower Massage.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Goes nowhere.