Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
48 17 Again
76 Adventureland
48 Angels & Demons
54 Battle for Terra
xx Bruno
80 Coraline
40 Dance Flick
83 Drag Me to Hell
72 Earth
45 Fast & Furious
61 Fighting
34 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
72 Gran Torino
73 Hangover, The
47 Hannah Montana: The Movie
51 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
54 Imagine That
41 Knowing
32 Land of the Lost
56 Monsters vs. Aliens
34 My Life in Ruins
51 My Sister's Keeper
46 Next Day Air
42 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
54 Observe and Report
25 Obsessed
48 Proposal, The
70 Public Enemies
61 Soloist, The
83 Star Trek
64 State of Play
55 Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
52 Terminator Salvation
35 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
77 Under the Sea 3D
88 Up
43 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
34 Year One

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
81 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
70 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
56 Girl from Monaco, The
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
16 I Hate Valentine's Day
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
71 Jerichow
58 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
66 Moon
35 New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
65 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
54 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
28 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
70 Tony Manero
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
45 Whatever Works
57 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Sex and Lucia
Palm Pictures


7.1

based on 28 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 27 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Paz Vega, Tristán Ulloa, Najwa Nimri, Daniel Freire, Javier Cámara, and Elena Anaya

Lucia is a young waitress in Madrid. After the loss of her long-time boyfriend, a writer, she seeks refuge on a quiet, secluded Mediterranean island, where she begins to discover the dark corners of her past relationship. (Palm Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Julio Medem
DIRECTED BY:	Julio Medem
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 25, 2003 Video: March 25, 2003 Theatrical: July 12, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	128 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France / Spain
LANGUAGE(S):	Spanish (with English subtitles)

Original Spanish title "Lucía y el sexo"

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 27 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

susangrinker gave it a10:
Was one of the top 10 audience favorites at the Seattle Film festival. I liked it so much that I saw it all three times it played!!!

F. Valeron gave it a10:
Lucia y el Sexo is quite possibly one of the greatest films we're all ever going to get to see. It's so rare for a film to magically engage every sense simultaneously, and, it seems to me, the films that manage this are increasingly coming from Spain and South America. This one is a masterpiece.

Gavin D. gave it a10:
A fabulous love story which picks you up and takes you to heaven. You can watch this movie five times and still love its complex passionate heart. One of my desert island movies.

ANDREW M. gave it an 8:
Medem is an extraordinary filmmaker. The photography in this film is exquisite, there is simply no other word for it. I differ with those people who have commented on the supposed "poor cinematography" - whether you get anything out of the story or not shouldn't detract from the gorgeous look and aesthetic feel of this film. It's also one of the most sensual films I have ever seen. Again, credit Medem. His work with the actors, the script, the production, transforms Sex And Lucia into pure cinema-viagra! And Paz Vega in the leading role is dynamite. What a stunning and beautiful creature! She oozes sensuality and is arresting to watch. As for the plot, I got lost quite easily....but I didn't care much....if I'm gonna be lost, let it be in a paradise like this.

[Anonymous] gave it a 10:
Excellent. emotional with breath taking scenes. rarely is there a movie with this much beauty.

[Anonymous] gave it a 3:
I stopped watching after Belen was in the hospital. I just did not care about any of the characters.

[Anonymous] gave it a 10:
Because that movie is perfect!

Sex and Lucia Palm Pictures

Sex and Lucia
Palm Pictures