Sex and Lucia

Palm Pictures | Release Date: July 12, 2002

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

65	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

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100

Tim Merrill

Medem's astonishing, magical-realist love story Sex and Lucía is easily the best Spanish film since "All About My Mother." But such a statement actually undersells the beauty of what Medem has created, which in many ways rather defies description. Read full review

Paul Malcolm

Climaxes in a flood of revelations that, like so much of the film, take us where we least expect to go. Read full review

Joe Morgenstern

Elegant and sometimes inscrutable.

New Times (L.A.)Andy Klein

Fans of convoluted narrative in the manner of Christopher Nolan and David Lynch are likely to be intrigued, although Medem has a far stronger streak of sentiment.

Richard Schickel

These people are fools for heedless love and, perhaps, needless complication, and you can't help responding to the heat of their passion. Read full review

Hank Sartin

This film by Julio Medem has dreamlike visuals, lush sensuality, a gorgeous cast, and a plot built on elaborate, self-conscious coincidences. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

It's still pretty darn good, despite its smarty-pants aura. Read full review

Carrie Rickey

Whatever you say about Sex and Lucía, you have to admit that it takes place at a hormonal high tide that never ebbs. Read full review

Chris Kaltenbach

At times, Sex and Lucia is too precious for its own good; a movie that demands its own flow chart isn't always a good thing. And events turn on one coincidence too many. But Medem's exquisite craftsmanship and full-throttle eroticism make his film a morass worth the attempt to unravel.

Kim Morgan

The film is tangled but not chaotic, thoughtful but not terribly deep. Still, it's intimate, entertaining, and most impressive, genuine.

Sean Axmaker

With the story's vivid and passionate women and the power of emotional healing (not to mention the intense eroticism of his hothouse romance), gives Sex and Lucia a dynamic, vigorous life. Read full review

Lawrence Toppman

Anyone familiar with the movies of Julio Medem knows where "Sex and Lucia" is going. Or, rather, knows that it's impossible to know. Read full review

Roger Ebert

The parts work even if the whole leaves me uncertain. Many movies are certain about their whole, but are made of careless parts. Forced to choose, I would take the parts. Read full review

Marta Barber

Medem may have disrobed most of the cast, leaving their bodies exposed, but the plot remains as guarded as a virgin with a chastity belt. That's why Sex and Lucía is so alluring.