(NR, 128 mins. with sub-titles)
From writer/director Julio Medem (Lovers of the Arctic Circle), comes a stunning adventurous look at passion, elusive relationships and deep bonds between people who thought they were strangers. Lucia is a young waitress in Madrid. After the loss of her boyfriend, a writer, she seeks refuge on a quiet, secluded Mediterranean island. There, bathed in fresh air, sun and glistening blue seas, Lucia begins to discover the dark corners of her past relationship. It is as if she is reading forbidden passages of a novel in which the author only now, from afar, allows her to indulge. Is it fact of fiction? Lust of love? Does the island become a metaphor for rebirth? Lucia (Paz Vega) is a cross between an American Winona Ryder and Spanish Penelope Cruz. Medem has explored themes of love, death, nature and accident in film which have made critics compare his work to Broges and David Lynch, yet while the beauty of a writer is he can change the ending, this art of storytelling movie seems too forced, too contrived and too convenient. Although it’s certainly not lacking in steamy sex scenes.
