Imagine this: you are a young writer, you are sitting in a cafe and this radiantly beautiful girl, Lucia(played by adorable Paz Vega), comes up to you and confesses that she's so taken by your book and is in love with you and wants to live with you while undressing you with her bright, intelligent, big brown eyes, what do you do?! WHAT.DO.YOU.DO?!
The film starts with a lush underwater photography, off the island of Malta- clear turquoise water, reeds swaying back and forth. Director Julio Medem has a great visual sense. With the sun drenched HD photography and all the intimate sex scenes, the film is just gorgeous to look at from beginning to end. It's too bad Medem's usual cosmic universe of coincidences and chance loses its steam and gets too schmaltzy. I couldn't buy into all the cleverly planned intricacies in the theme of losing oneself in the hole(plotholes, sexual innuendos, mother's womb, light/darkness, etc).
In the end, even with all the human drama, I found myself unmoved by the film. This is a typical case of 'what looks good on paper doesn't necessarily translate well on to the screen'. Too bad, beautiful actresses(Vega, Najwa Nimri of Los amantes del Círculo Polar, and smoldering Elena Anaya) are all wasted in the sappy script.
