Untangling Sex and Lucia

Words that I would immediately think of when I hear this movie are erotic, confusing, and melancholy: confusing for its plot; melancholy for the theme itself; and erotic for the detailed love making. The plot would be the thing that’s quite impossible for me to tell. It started in the middle and ended in the middle as well. What made it more confusing is the mixture of the novel being written by Lorenzo and the story of Lucia’s love life. It was a novel within a movie, so to speak. For this reason, you’d be guessing which is real, and which fantasy is. But of course, one thing is for sure, the movie was truly about Lucia and Lorenzo’s relationship.

The film was done with the montage style. Clips were joined together in a different order. It begun with Lucia’s heart getting heartbroken. She rushes to see her man only to find a suicide note. A sudden ring on the phone then tells her that her boyfriend, Lorenzo, died. To ease her pain, she went off to the island that Lorenzo kept on saying. She met a man named Carlos who then led her to a house where she could stay in. The house was owned by Elena, the mother of Lorenzo’s daughter Luna. The story then gives us a look at how relationships came to be and how it ended: Lucia’s proposal at a bar and the love making were shown; Lorenzo and Elena’s night at the beach showed how they had a daughter. Lorenzo never knew he had one until a friend of his told him. The thing is, he had to write a story about it. This then brings us to the confusing part trying to decipher which is real and made up by Lorenzo. He looks for a way to come closer to his daughter, and that was by having a relationship with Belen, Luna’s baby sitter. After he tucks his daughter to bed, he and Belen makes love commanding the dog to keep watch. Unfortunately, Luna get’s up and goes to their room which then resulted to her being attacked by the dog. Lorenzo flees while Belen committed suicide. Belen recovers while Lorenzo was trapped depressed. His depression led to the fading of love between Lorenzo and Lucia which brings us back to the break up.

The portrayal of Paz Vega as Lucia was truly effective. She acted naturally that you won’t see her have a single sign of nervousness. Tristan Ulloa also did great in portraying Lorenzo. He effectively drew people’s attention. The setting was at the “floating island” which basically was where everything revolved. The theme was about love. Love between a father and his daughter, and a love between lovers. The sex is the main attraction.  This kept the people eyes glued to the screen. The lovers’ exploration of their bodies and sexual tastes during their whirlwind courtship is erotic and tasteful; the scenes are arousing, but are also beautifully constructed to create a sense of true intimacy between the characters. The use of music weren’t that noticeable for me because the scenes were already seemed like music. The cinematography must be given an applause knowing that they only used a high definition digital camera.

According to Simon Wardell, “The director's trademark use of elemental symbolism also gives the movie other meanings not tied to plot, with the sun and moon joining the sea as forces shaping the characters' lives. Even the island that draws Lucia, Lorenzo, and Elena to it reputedly floats unsteadily on the water. And everything revolves around sex, from procreation to pornography, portrayed in the sort of unembarrassed, explicit detail in vogue in European arthouse releases these days.” Lorenzo also told something about making a good ending. He said “The first advantage is at the end of the story. It doesn't finish, it falls in a hole. And the story starts again halfway. The other advantage, and the biggest, is that you can change course along the way.” Just as the movie, it ended by showing the middle which again boggles your mind.