I finished Sex and Lucia and was left wondering what had just happened. After a little over 2 hours of watching Lucia, the title character, on screen as she wandered about her life, I was left feeling a bit bereft and very confused. And while you think that the film is from Lucia's point of view, it actually centers more around Lorenzo. Complicated? Yes.
The film opens with Lucia on the phone talking to her live-in writer boyfriend, Lorenzo, and you're led to believe that Lorenzo is feeling suicidal and that he later dies in an accident. The film twists and turns around the real life events of Lucia and Lorenzo and the events of Lorenzo's second novel, and then there are some scenes where the two apparently overlap. It's confusing only because it doesn't follow a linear progression. Lorenzo's ability to blur the line between reality and fiction completely messed with my ability to keep everyone straight in whether they were fictional or not.
The "sex" aspect of the title holds quite true and is gratuitous in many places to the point of absurdity. I get it. Their relationship is new. Can we move on? The style of cinematography from Medem seems a bit forced in some places and sometimes almost detracts from the film rather than adding to the story, rather like the sex. Sex and Lucia is one of those films that could benefit from a second watch to possibly deduce more of the story, but it really isn't worth sitting through twice in my opinion.
Sex and Lucia is currently available through digital Video on Demand outlets.
