Thursday, November 16, 2006

Movie Log: Sex and Lucia

Sex and Lucia is one of those European movies that make up for having a lot of sex (among Highly attractive people, no less) by being really slow, turgid, and depressing -- oh, I'm sorry, "serious."

It's somewhat mistitled -- Lucia might be onscreen the most, but her boyfriend, Lorenzo, is the center of the movie. And it's less about sex than it is about connections; it's the kind of movie that only has nine characters, who're all inter-connected in ridiculously convoluted ways. (It also has a semi-complicated structure, with two plot strands -- one in the present day, one in flashback -- and some scenes that may be fictional or may not be.)

The Wife and I saw it last night -- we made it all the way to the end, but we weren't thrilled. It's a little too slow, and a little too unfocused too much of the time. It really needed tighter cinematography, and better shot choices (when it drops into flashback for the first time, both of us thought one newly introduced female character was actually Lucia for quite a while -- it's a movie that's confusing for reasons of physical murkiness and bad camera placement far too much).

On the other hand, the sex is mostly nice, though sometimes disturbing at the same time. And the acting is quite good. This should have been a better movie; all of the pieces were there, but it didn't come together the way it should. If you want to see naked Europeans having Important Sex, this might be a movie for you -- especially if you smoke above eye level.

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