Lucia, Lucia

Rating:
Summary: Dial C for Cecilia
Review: Cecilia Roth is such a strong screen presence and a first rate actress that she can't help but bring a solemnity and emotional weight to any project in which she appears. And "Lucia, Lucia" is no exception.
Lucia's husband goes missing while he and Lucia are waiting for a flight that will take them on vacation. Lucia knows almost nothing about her husband on a personal level and absolutely nothing in regards to his business dealings. Not a new story concept but serviceable.
Lucia enlists the help of a couple of her neighbors Felix (retired, smart) and Adrian (young, reckless, intelligent) and so begins the movie in earnest: all three searching for the missing husband.
Director Antonio Serrano knows his way around the plot and story line machinations of this thriller material but he brings a gentleness and a sort of kindness not often seen, and usually not warranted, in this genre. Like his countryman Almodovar, Serrano takes the film noir/ woman-in-distress thriller and shakes it up a bit: adding a lot of romance both platonic and not and using Love as a positive rather than as a way to "get at" a character.
Serrano is saying: ok, you're in a pinch, your husband is a thief, a crook and a liar BUT you can still find true Love.
"Lucia, Lucia" is often very effective and sometimes not but when Cecilia Roth is on screen, you believe everything she does and says. And that is star power and screen presence any way you look at it.

Rating:
Summary: Dial C for Cecilia
Review: Cecilia Roth is such a strong screen presence and a first rate actress that she can't help but bring a solemnity and emotional weight to any project in which she appears. And "Lucia, Lucia" is no exception.
Lucia's husband goes missing while he and Lucia are waiting for a flight that will take them on vacation. Lucia knows almost nothing about her husband on a personal level and absolutely nothing in regards to his business dealings. Not a new story concept but serviceable.
Lucia enlists the help of a couple of her neighbors Felix (retired, smart) and Adrian (young, reckless, intelligent) and so begins the movie in earnest: all three searching for the missing husband.
Director Antonio Serrano knows his way around the plot and story line machinations of this thriller material but he brings a gentleness and a sort of kindness not often seen, and usually not warranted, in this genre. Like his countryman Almodovar, Serrano takes the film noir/ woman-in-distress thriller and shakes it up a bit: adding a lot of romance both platonic and not and using Love as a positive rather than as a way to "get at" a character.
Serrano is saying: ok, you're in a pinch, your husband is a thief, a crook and a liar BUT you can still find true Love.
"Lucia, Lucia" is often very effective and sometimes not but when Cecilia Roth is on screen, you believe everything she does and says. And that is star power and screen presence any way you look at it.

Rating:
Summary: As usual Cecila Roth shines!
Review: Cecilia Roth presents a great performance in her role of Lucia, a woman trying to find her kidnapped husband. She meets two neighbors who offer her help, Adrian and Felix, and the three of them embark in dangerous adventures that are narrated by Lucia in a very peculiar way.

Since I am Spanish-speaking it was very interesting for me to see Cecilia Roth speaking with a Mexican accent; she achieves this almost perfectly and only in a couple of moments you can distinguish the easily discernible Argentinean accent. As to the performance she shows once more that a movie with her as the star can be bad, since she compensates for faults in the script, direction or even in other actors. Not that she needs to do so in this movie, since Carlos Alvarez-Novoa shines in his performance too, and the story is interesting and keeps you hooked all the time.

The only reason why I gave this movie four stars instead of five is because I did not like the ending and there is a blatant mistake in a motorcycle chase. Watch the movie paying attention and you will find the error easily ;-)

Rating:
Summary: A Labyrinth Well Worth Entering
Review: Director Antonio Serrano obviously holds his contemporary Pedro Almodovar in high esteem: he has found the same sharp edge between reality and fiction, uses some of the same actors, and most important, satisfies his audience with a first rate product.

LUCIA, LUCIA is a tour de force for the brilliant actress Cecilia Roth. Cast as the wife of a man she barely knows after many year of marriage, a man who mysteriously disappears on the eve of their Latin American holiday vacation, Roth moves from dowdy plain-Jane to sensuous beauty in the course of the story. Roth (Lucia) is a writer of children's books - silly stories about chickens and ducks illustrated by a young artist (Adrian) who is not only intelligent but also very handsome and passionate (Kuno Becker, in a career-making role - he simply has it all.) From the outset of the film Lucia talks with us, her audience, admitting that she has just related fantasies rather than truths, versions of her life that are far more intriguing than her boring existence. When she discovers that her husband has been 'kidnapped' she gathers the forces of Adrian and of Felix, an elderly gentleman who lives in her apartment (the always fine Carlos Alvarez-Novoa). This unlikely trio starts on a caper that is at once funny and tender because it is through the absurdities they encounter that each finds himself and acknowledges their mutual love. Lucia manages to show us various scenes of the same incident, each colored by her imagination and her desire to be more than she is: she has a passionate affair with Adrian who is young enough to be her son, she manages to compensate Felix for this intelligence and guidance and his obvious love for her though he is old enough to be her father! In the end (and the end comes only after a well calculated intrigue that involves government corruption, hostage settings, etc) Lucia has found herself - 'discovering new places is viewing the world with new eyes' - and lives happily alone, writing serious novels.

The movie is in Spanish with English subtitles, is beautifully photographed and well directed and edited. But it is the powerful presence of Cecilia Roth that makes this movie sing. Add to that the magnetic gifts of the handsome and talented Kuno Becker and the grace and experience of Carlos Alvarez-Novoa and the result is a very gratifying - strangely bizarre - movie.

Rating:
Summary: A Labyrinth Well Worth Entering
Review: Director Antonio Serrano obviously holds his contemporary Pedro Almodovar in high esteem: he has found the same sharp edge between reality and fiction, uses some of the same actors, and most important, satisfies his audience with a first rate product.

LUCIA, LUCIA is a tour de force for the brilliant actress Cecilia Roth. Cast as the wife of a man she barely knows after many year of marriage, a man who mysteriously disappears on the eve of their Latin American holiday vacation, Roth moves from dowdy plain-Jane to sensuous beauty in the course of the story. Roth (Lucia) is a writer of children's books - silly stories about chickens and ducks illustrated by a young artist (Adrian) who is not only intelligent but also very handsome and passionate (Kuno Becker, in a career-making role - he simply has it all.) From the outset of the film Lucia talks with us, her audience, admitting that she has just related fantasies rather than truths, versions of her life that are far more intriguing than her boring existence. When she discovers that her husband has been 'kidnapped' she gathers the forces of Adrian and of Felix, an elderly gentleman who lives in her apartment (the always fine Carlos Alvarez-Novoa). This unlikely trio starts on a caper that is at once funny and tender because it is through the absurdities they encounter that each finds himself and acknowledges their mutual love. Lucia manages to show us various scenes of the same incident, each colored by her imagination and her desire to be more than she is: she has a passionate affair with Adrian who is young enough to be her son, she manages to compensate Felix for this intelligence and guidance and his obvious love for her though he is old enough to be her father! In the end (and the end comes only after a well calculated intrigue that involves government corruption, hostage settings, etc) Lucia has found herself - 'discovering new places is viewing the world with new eyes' - and lives happily alone, writing serious novels.

The movie is in Spanish with English subtitles, is beautifully photographed and well directed and edited. But it is the powerful presence of Cecilia Roth that makes this movie sing. Add to that the magnetic gifts of the handsome and talented Kuno Becker and the grace and experience of Carlos Alvarez-Novoa and the result is a very gratifying - strangely bizarre - movie.

Rating:
Summary: suspensful, strange, and unique
Review: I didn't know what to expect from this movie. It was overall very suspensful, with lots of twists and turns. I haven't seen anything like this movie. Nothing too typical or predictable. A few scenes do not connect well together, and the movie can drag on a bit. I don't know if i could sit through it again, but it was suspensful and captivating 2 hrs of entertainment from some talented actors (and a cute Adrian)



Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Film
Review: This film is remarkable and Cecilia Roth is amazing as always. Her character is so strong at times and then so weak. What I really like about the story, without giving away a main part, she how it seems she is writing the story. The final scene is magnificent and leaves you with a smile.

Rating:
Summary: Viva Mexico!
Review: This is a different kind of movie. The protagonist writes books (children's books) and it is not clear whether or not the strange and disconnected events in the movie are her imaginings for a novel or if they actually occurred. In this, the movie was unsatisfying. What was a pleasure to see was Mexico City. Never having been there, I would not imagine the way it was shown. It was more like New York or Madrid than a third world metropolis. Things like call forwarding and cell phones and answering machines are no different than what we have here at home. But the plot of the movie, whatever that was, was not enough to save this film. Perhaps the plot was not important . . I really couldn't figure that out. See it and make up your own mind.