A banal third act quickly runs out of gas, confusing the narrative and turning a subtle psychological mood piece into a giddy melodrama.
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07/30/03
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Lucia, Lucia (2003)
44
%
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Reviews Counted:48
Fresh:21
Rotten:27
Average Rating:5.4/10
Consensus: A relatively simple mid-life crisis story is burdened by overly cumbersome plot devices.
Theatrical Release:Jul 25, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $170,900
Synopsis: Mexican director Antonio Serrano fuses comedy and suspense in this tall tale of children's book author Lucia (Celia Roth, of ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER fame), who becomes the center of a a big mess of... [More]
Starring: Cecilia Roth, Kuno Becker, Carlos Alvarez-Novoa
Director: Antonio Serrano
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Reviews for Lucia, Lucia
Even as the story of one woman's midlife crisis, it's a bit lightweight.
07/22/03
Top CriticA comedy-mystery that's neither funny nor mysterious.
07/25/03
Top Critic"Lucia, Lucia" keeps rolling along after it's run out of gas, but Roth, Álvarez-Novoa and newcomer Becker are always interesting travelling companions.
08/01/03
It's the old midlife crisis tale, just without a lot of charm or surprises.
11/20/03
Top CriticWho knows when the movie will take a trip down Mulholland Drive?
08/03/03
The movie tries to add too many plot twists and goes on a little long, but there's a lot of material to pack in: a children's book about chickens, embezzling, crooked cops, and that old country favorite - Achy Breaky Corazon.
08/01/03
Scattered but charming adaptation of Rosa Montero's novel La Hija del Canibal.
07/31/03
Top CriticThe fancy stuff and foolery impedes the story and its emotions.
07/25/03
Top CriticAfter a lively first half-hour, the scenes start to feel heavy, as though Serrano suddenly decided he was actually making a meaningful drama, and the ensuing, halfhearted political satire is like an extra weight on top of that.
07/24/03
A vivacious-looking, tartly-scored bore of a movie.
07/24/03
Top CriticSerrano keeps the wit coming, and another richly nuanced performance from the lovely, red-headed Roth keeps us always focused on the real mystery of the piece -- whether this appealing woman will find a way to find herself.
08/01/03
Anxiety is a fair response to a midlife crisis, but that hardly means that we want to see the heroine of a movie spend scene after scene trapped in a nervous dither of indecision.
07/30/03
Top CriticIt's a nifty little premise that becomes even more engaging because of the movie's ability to look at ordinary events through extraordinary eyes.
08/08/03
At times, the movie sags from too much plot, but the characters remain buoyant and funny right to the very end.
07/24/03
Top CriticA playful, though not strikingly original, engagement of the unreliable narrator, and a fluffy study of the contrast between wish-fulfilling fiction and cold, hard reality.
08/25/04
Cecilia Roth's dynamic acting convinces us that women go through mid-life crises as readily as men.
07/27/03
Lucía reveals a great deal about herself in 110 minutes of self-fulfilling narration, but imagine how much better the experience would have been had the story allowed itself to match that depth.
08/22/03
Roth, Becker and especially Álvarez-Novoa are all charming performers, but this self-consciously tricky tale of secrets, passion and intrigue doesn't linger beyond the closing credits.
07/26/03
The ways and reasons we make fiction -- including the fiction of a happy marriage -- are the playful but resonant notions that keep the story afloat.
08/03/03
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