Lucía, Lucía

Lucía, Lucía (Spanish: La hija del caníbal) is a 2003 film directed by Antonio Serrano based on the 1997 novel La hija del caníbal by Rosa Montero.^[3] The film stars Cecilia Roth, Carlos Álvarez-Nóvoa, and Kuno Becker.

Lucía, Lucía
United States theatrical release poster
Spanish	La hija del caníbal
Directed by	Antonio Serrano
Written by	Antonio Serrano
Based on	La hija del caníbal by Rosa Montero
Produced by	Matthias Ehrenberg Andrés Vicente Gómez Carlos Payán
Starring	Cecilia Roth Kuno Becker Carlos Álvarez-Nóvoa Javier Díaz Dueñas Margarita Isabel Max Kerlow Mario Iván Martínez José Elías Moreno Héctor Ortega Enrique Singer
Cinematography	Xavier Pérez Grobet
Edited by	Jorge García
Music by	Nacho Mastretta
Production companies	LolaFilms Conaculta
Distributed by	20th Century Fox (Mexico) United International Pictures (Spain)
Release dates	January 17, 2003 (2003-01-17) (Mexico) November 21, 2003 (2003-11-21) (Spain)
Running time	110 minutes
Countries	Mexico Spain
Language	Spanish
Budget	€3.3 million MXN$30 million USD$2.75 million[1]
Box office	$269,586[2]

Plot

Lucía, a children's book writer, is travelling to Brazil with her husband on vacation, when her husband disappears after going to the airport bathroom. She later learns that he was kidnapped by a group called the People Workers Party that wants 20 million pesos from her. Her husband frantically tells her to find the money in his aunt's safe deposit box. With the help of her neighbours, a Spanish Civil War veteran, and a young musician, Lucía sets out to find his kidnappers. She eventually discovers the truth about his disappearance after learning from the police that her husband is accused of being part of an elaborate embezzlement scam from within the Treasury Department of the government and may have possibly faked his kidnapping.

Cast

• Cecilia Roth as Lucía
• Kuno Becker as Adrián
• Carlos Álvarez-Nóvoa as Félix
• Javier Díaz Dueñas as Inspector García
• Margarita Isabel as Lucía's mother
• Max Kerlow as Old Wehner
• Mario Iván Martínez as Mr. Wehner
• José Elías Moreno as Ramón
• Héctor Ortega as The Cannibal
• Enrique Singer as Undersecretary Ortiga

Production

The novel

The film was shot over a period of eight weeks in and around Mexico City, as well as at the Puebla airport and the Sierra Gorda of Querétaro. In the United States the film was released under the name Lucía, Lucía, since the producers thought the name La hija del caníbal (literally, "The cannibal's daughter") would lead audiences to believe the story was about a cannibal.

Reception

Lucía, Lucía was not as successful as Serrano's first film Sexo, Pudor y Lágrimas. Its box-office output in Mexico was MNX$10 million (under a million dollars). In Spain it was released on November 21, 2003 in 100 theaters.^[4] In the United States it had a box-office output of $269,586 in just 50 theatres. The film is the 204th highest grossing foreign film in the United States.^[2]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 45% of 49 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "A relatively simple mid-life crisis story is burdened by overly cumbersome plot devices."^[5] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 51 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[6]

Accolades

The film was nominated for the following awards:

• Ariel Award in 2004 from the Mexican Academy of Film for "Best Adapted Script" (Antonio Serrano)
• MTV Movie Awards Mexico for:
  • "Favourite Actor" (Kuno Becker)
  • "Best Song" (Kinky's Caníbal).

See also

• List of Mexican films of 2003
• List of Spanish films of 2003