LUCIA,LUCIA is just as the summary says, I was laughing in all the right places,Antonia Serrono wrote & directed this in fine style.There are 3 major characters played by 3 wonderful actors. Cecelia Roth (star of Almodavar films) is at her luminous best.She plays Lucia (late 40's) still sexy. Carlos Alvarez-Nova is an elderly neighbor (with strange past). & new comer Kumo Becker (mid 20's) & very sexy., The 3 of them team up in the farce about a kidnapped husband,ransom money, drugs, car chases, Beautiful mountain scenery..Some very good sex scenes, Many laughs throughout but thankfully no stupid slapstick. There are fun & not so much fun characters.This is somewhat similar to comedies by Bunel BUT nowhere in that league, just a crazy mixed up patch-quilt, That I & hopefully you will laugh your way through.ratings ***1/2 (out of 4) 95 points (out of 100) 4 (out of 10)

If you expect the plot in this Mexican pseudo-thriller to make sense, or be suspenseful, you are bound to be disappointed. The crux of this movie are the relationships and mid-life recentering that go on in Lucia's (Cecilia Roth) life. Her husband disappears, and she rushes to find him. Along the way she is befriended by an old ex-rebel communist and a young man who falls in love with her despite her wishes otherwise. These two friends come to take precedence in her life as she realized she doesn't really like her husband, and wants to live her own life. When she eventually tracks down her husband, she wishes him well and they go their separate ways. I didn't dislike the film even despite its weakness. I was interested to see how Lucia discovered herself and grew closer to and pushed away those around her.This movie is like a veggie burger with eggplant in place of beef, covered in lettuce and tomatoes and sauce. When you first bite in, the first thing you taste is the bun and the lettuce. Then as you chew, you see that there is sauce, tomato and eggplant, but no meat. Try as you might, it's just not the same without meat. It might be not be disappointing if it were packaged a salad between bread, but as a substitute for a burger, it just doesn't satisfy. 5/10http://blog.myspace.com/locoformovies

Wasn't this supposed to be the summer of only dumb sequels for teenagers? So what a surprise that we have a virtual trilogy of intelligent foreign films about women of a certain age with strong, sexy imaginations and time on their hands to meet up with unexpected strangers, in "Swimming Pool" then "Friday Night (Vendredi Soir)" and now "Lucia, Lucia (La Hija del canibal)." "Lucia" is unexpectedly the funniest of the three, a delightfully wry black comedy with twists on expectations that the storyteller turns on herself constantly as she bonds in an odd three-some with her neighbors, an elderly ex-revolutionary and a young hunk. While based on a novel, it seems like a gender/generational response to the Mexican teen-age road movie "Y Tu Mama Tambien," in the classic tradition of women's response songs to hits (as in "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels"), complete with a country line dance scene as a relaxing break from political intrigue and marital secrets exposed while Lucia searches for her kidnapped husband -- and herself. One of the running jokes is how the older generations can still surprise the young 'uns.

Lucia, played by veteran actress and foreign film diva Cecilia Roth, is your typical rite-of-passage character. Through the events surrounding the disappearance of her husband, Lucia discovers a new side of herself she hasn't felt due to the freedom of being unmarried and unrestricted. Is it her womaness, her sexuality, her independence she finds? Bingo! You guessed right. The movie wouldn't be so bad if it actually showed her character development from a more personal-inner perspective ... but the journey is clouded through the integration of two men in her life and a weak plot that just seems to drag on and on and on ... at least that's how you feel when the so called "mystery" is solved. It's like you sat through the whole movie for no reason at all ... Roth's acting is good ... although bit overkill on the crying scenes ... the actor who plays Felix is a bit distracting ... facial expressions and lines are given unnaturally, and the other man, her young-love toy, is nothing more than slight eye-candy to hormonal admirers.In short, the plot is fairly original, but not well executed, circular camera shots confuse the audience, the comedy is a bit dry and weak, the drama is a bit heavy, and the acting is moderate. This movie gets four stars (****) ... had Cecilia Roth not been in it, it would have received (**) ... she is the only redeeming value of this flick.-Daine-