zetes 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.

chaos-rampant I have seen one other film by this guy and consider it one of the very best. This is even better if possible, an achievement in cinematic vocabulary. I posit that he's one of a handful of filmmakers currently innovating the cinematic narrative, maybe even one of only two. Welles, Tarkovsky, Resnais, Ruiz, he belongs in this celebrated company of filmmakers; where the effort is not just to animate a part of an overall world that we experience as our narrative, but rise to the level where narratives are engineered and see is there an author or fate perhaps chronicling the whole. And do we live in the midst of images randomly spun around us or is there pattern and gravity in the gears.I suppose this one in particular was not given any leeway from the critics because of how sexually frank. It's difficult to handle sex, it seems to pull in another direction than we're used to with film. It's okay to be emotional in the presence of strangers, in a dark hall, but to be aroused? The manipulation goes too far it would seem.This is not about sex or Lucia however any more than 2001 is about a monolith, Blowup about a photograph or Kane about a sled. It is about you and the love of your life. Now she could be any one of the three women here, maybe all of them at once. Naturally there's going to be sex, playful, exciting sex at first caress. And later more sinister as we give into fantasy that we know is wrong. You are the author turning complicated life with these women into a novel about sex and hurt. Maybe she is really a single woman and you have written her in three parts to be able to handle the depth of feeling. All three listen in some way to what your part is about them. All three wish to intimately know and understand how your gears turn.Turns out you have increasing pain and darkness welling up inside of you that must be kept secret else the world comes tumbling down, a secret that you fathered. But since you are an author and pretty good at that, hence familiar with shifting characters inside a narrative that shifts as they move, you know you have to write deeper than you can immediately make sense of: so you write your novel the ordinary way, a melodrama about love that hurts, but with one caveat: there's a hole at the end that takes you right back to some part in the middle. The hole is in a rocky, windswept island that is claimed is not attached to any sea floor, it just heaves this way and that with the winds. Lucia falls in the hole, and comes out the other end as fragments of what we presume is a whole story, a whole life read one way through. We assume we're seeing things as they happened. But are we watching from her end? Her end as she reads the story from behind a screen late at night? Or as the other reads it from another screen? As the man tells it? As it happened? As anyone of these people is remembering it happened? As he imagines on his deathbed it did? It doesn't matter. This is your ploy. You have written your personal drama in a way that lets you sink behind your small narrative and there be assured by a greater realization: this is the way the world turns. You have lost and found again and it's all part of the cycle. And then it starts again from the middle.Something to meditate upon.

hall895 Trying to explain this movie's plot is an exercise in futility. It goes around in circles, delights in throwing the viewer completely for a loop. As the movie goes round and round you're left clinging to the hope that this will all get sorted out in the end. It doesn't. When the movie ends you're left questioning everything you have just seen. What did it all mean? Did it mean anything at all? What the heck just happened here? The whole thing is extremely convoluted. Trying to sort it all out may give you a migraine. It's an ambitious effort from director Julio Medem but he never quite manages to get his puzzle to fit together perfectly.Lorenzo is a novelist living in Madrid. Lucia is a big fan of his, veering close to stalker territory. Lorenzo deems it a good idea to have Lucia, whom he has just met and knows absolutely nothing about, move in with him. Lorenzo and Lucia then have sex. Lots and lots of sex. So the movie's title makes sense. The movie itself? There are times where it is very hard to make any sense of it. Lorenzo's writing a new novel and his life and his novel become intertwined to the point it's hard to discern what is real and what is imagined. The movie jumps back and forth in time and in location, going from Madrid to an idyllic island getaway where characters turn out to be connected in very convenient ways in order to keep the story going. The story never goes in a straight line, it's all over the place. If you can't figure it out don't despair because the characters are having a heck of a time figuring it out for themselves. As we watch Lorenzo struggle with his real life and his imagined one we think we may have an advantage because the movie already told us what ultimately happens to Lorenzo way back in the first few minutes. But the way this movie goes round in circles you find that even when you think you know something you don't really know anything at all.It's definitely an intriguing story but it all gets a little too messy. The good bits and pieces don't add up to a satisfying whole. There's much to appreciate but the end result leaves you feeling a bit dazed and probably a bit disappointed. After so much confusion you're left with an ending that's really no ending at all, just raising more questions. And by the time this movie ends the last thing it needs to be doing is raising more questions. Tristán Ulloa as Lorenzo and Paz Vega as Lucia both turn in good performances in the two critical roles and they are ably supported by some other fine performers around them. The fact that the stunningly beautiful Vega is constantly naked certainly doesn't hurt the movie's appeal. She's not the only one spending plenty of time without any clothes on though. When you look at the movie's title the Sex is just as important as the Lucia. The movie probably goes a tad overboard with the sex, a little gratuitous at times. But at least the sex scenes give you moments where you can forget about the convoluted story for a bit. In the end it's that story that ultimately lets down the movie. It's one of those movies that you get the sense is trying to be a little too smart for its own good. The movie makes for interesting but ultimately somewhat frustrating viewing.

Faye K This film has fallen into my hands by accident and i am so happy for that as i found it absolutely amazing!!! I loved the twist and the whole story surrounding it!!! I found it totally daring and bold, very smart and the music by the wonderful Alberto Iglesias was just so good. The performances by Paz Vega and Najwa Nimri are just breath taking and Tristan Ulloa so sweet and real. The actors and actresses altogether have managed to make me feel various feelings throughout the movie and i have to admit that i have watched it over 10 times by now!!! THe location of the movie offered great colors and excellent views even though i still don't know where it was filmed!!!Another one time Javier Camera has proved his amazing talent. Julio Medem has made an exceptionally remarkable work. Spanish cinematography is indeed the finest!