Sex and Lucia Film Review

Loophole to the middle

Just when I thought I already understood, the film Sex and Lucia twists its plot in an odd yet effective manner and left me puzzled even after it ended. My senses and my thoughts clashed like sandstorm in a barren dessert. It passes through my mind with a huge impact yet it fails to leave a trail for me to follow through.

Sex and Lucia is a single plot-driven film that revealed to me three different stories efficiently. First was the story of Lucia, a young and beautiful waitress who knows what she wants and is unafraid chasing after it. Ironically, when what she wants entails things that she doesn’t want to have or happen, she runs away and seeks for escape. The second one was the story of Lorenzo. He is a novelist who falls easily for women and temptation. He had sex with a stranger in the beach situated in the Mediterranean island. Unknown to him, Elena (the stranger) became pregnant and gave birth to their daughter named Luna. And lastly, the third story was the novel of Lorenzo itself. The story narrates Lorenzo’s fictionalized life and the approach of a never-ending story because it always comes back to the middle. Also, the film became more confusing not just because it wasn’t chronologically arranged but the fictional gist of Lorenzo’s novel becomes, though not always, reality-like.

Though the sex scenes were explicitly stressed in the movie, the plot remains virgin and fragile. The cinematography was good but not great. At times, the scenes become over-exposed. Though I understand that it was meant for the luminosity of the island, it’s somehow unnecessary for me. The musicality was perfectly woven to fit each scene. There was not a point that it becomes a distraction.

            There were lots of symbolisms in the movie that can be easily understood but can hardly be defined. These symbolisms also are interconnected with each other, either consciously or unconsciously meant by the script writer.  The island, which isn’t really an island, represents isolation and scapegoat. The water which controls the movement of the island symbolizes steadfast emotion. Each time a person is experiencing emotional dexterity, he/she feels the control of the water over the island. The hole in the island is a gateway to another chapter of one’s life. When Lucia unintentionally plunged inside the hole, the film’s concentration moved from Lucia and Lorenzo’s relationship to Lorenzo’s life with Elena and Luna. Also, the moon and the sun represent two important parts of the movie. The moon is the love tied between Elena and Lorenzo, and the sun is Lucia and Lorenzo’s.

            I commend how the director understood feminine emotions and masculine passion. The actors and actresses perfectly portrayed their role in a manner that it became realistic. If I were Lucia, I should’ve done the same thing – escape when things are really getting worse. It is of human nature to find ways how to cope up with uncontrollable misfortunate events of life. Even Lorenzo did the same thing. He wanted to escape from reality that he became frustrated of his written novel because he knows that he cannot write the end because he doesn’t know what lies ahead in his presently miserable life. In the end, everything comes down to one reality. That life is complicated and uncontrollable. We fall into holes from time to time. We try to escape. We try to fool ourselves with senseless imagination to cover up reality.