LUCIA, LUCIA is another of several stories involving unreliable narrators as the lead character, telling a story that suddenly takes a left turn in plausibility and makes you, the viewer, question everything that you've seen and wonder if 1.) the director was too lazy to construct a believable story with incursions into the clever or the surreal, or 2.) the director, and his screenwriter, have tapped into the essence of turning a story and its genre inside out, ending with a product that is pure genius.
Much in the tradition of Francois Ozon's SWIMMING POOL and UNDER THE SAND, and David Lynch's LOST HIGHWAY, Antonio Serrano has created a movie about a woman, Lucia, whose husband Ramon disappears in the middle of a busy airport and thus misses her flight. However, because she's introduced herself as an unreliable narrator, she's spelled out the trickery that follows soon after when the real meat of the plot takes hold (which is soon enough, LUCIA, LUCIA doesn't take much time to get there).
See, her husband is nowhere to be found. Almost immediately following suit, her neighbor, an elderly man named Felix, and later on a young stud named Adrian, come to her aid. The three become fast friends and are on the way to find what has happened to Ramon. What they eventually realize is that other parties are also in hot pursuit, and that Ramon may have been a part of a much darker plot that puts her in constant danger.
LUCIA, LUCIA has a lot of visual style going for it. The way Lucia as a character begins telling her story, makes up her mind and changes appearance suggests that there is always something a little more to what's being shown. It might be a chore, however, for a viewer not too keen on these constant left turns that the story takes, and it might not be long before some form of exasperation settles in. Even so, it's an entertaining view that doesn't demand too many questions and has that final telling zoom-in of a picture that answers quite a bit of questions as to the character's identities.
Cecilia Roth's performance is on cue as the older woman caught in a situation that threatens to barrel out of control at any moment. She's given great support by Carlos Alvarez-Novoa as Felix, Kuno Becker as the stud-muffin Adrian, and Margarita Isabel as her mother. Jose Elias Moreno has a small part as Ramon.
Much in the tradition of Francois Ozon's SWIMMING POOL and UNDER THE SAND, and David Lynch's LOST HIGHWAY, Antonio Serrano has created a movie about a woman, Lucia, whose husband Ramon disappears in the middle of a busy airport and thus misses her flight. However, because she's introduced herself as an unreliable narrator, she's spelled out the trickery that follows soon after when the real meat of the plot takes hold (which is soon enough, LUCIA, LUCIA doesn't take much time to get there).
See, her husband is nowhere to be found. Almost immediately following suit, her neighbor, an elderly man named Felix, and later on a young stud named Adrian, come to her aid. The three become fast friends and are on the way to find what has happened to Ramon. What they eventually realize is that other parties are also in hot pursuit, and that Ramon may have been a part of a much darker plot that puts her in constant danger.
LUCIA, LUCIA has a lot of visual style going for it. The way Lucia as a character begins telling her story, makes up her mind and changes appearance suggests that there is always something a little more to what's being shown. It might be a chore, however, for a viewer not too keen on these constant left turns that the story takes, and it might not be long before some form of exasperation settles in. Even so, it's an entertaining view that doesn't demand too many questions and has that final telling zoom-in of a picture that answers quite a bit of questions as to the character's identities.
Cecilia Roth's performance is on cue as the older woman caught in a situation that threatens to barrel out of control at any moment. She's given great support by Carlos Alvarez-Novoa as Felix, Kuno Becker as the stud-muffin Adrian, and Margarita Isabel as her mother. Jose Elias Moreno has a small part as Ramon.