Lovers

Stars: Victoria Abril (High Heels, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down) Jorge Sanz (Valentina), Maribel Verdu. Based on a true story, this bizarre drama, set in Madrid during the 1950s, features a strong lead by Victoria Abril (which won her two foreign "Best Actress" awards) as Luiza, a grifter who takes in a young border named Paco (Jorge Sanz). An ex-soldier who is engaged to a virginal maid named Trini (Maribel Verdu), Paco is an inexperienced, gullible, and rather heartless cad who is quickly seduced by the veteran Luiza, and finds himself less and less interested in his fiancee. Trini, fighting back, decides to play her trump card, her virginity, a move which infuriates the jealous Luiza and sends her into a fit of rage. As the loyalties shift back and forth in this volatile love triangle, the film inexorably marches toward its shocking finale. The heavily touted "steamy" sex scenes in Lovers are neither as frequent nor as explicit as the box cover seems to suggest (only two scenes go beyond the norm: one, a close-up of male genitals, the other a simulation of a handkerchief being rectally inserted). Ultimately, Lovers is far more interested in the mind game than the skin game and offers up a fairly involving tale of twisted love. Audience: Foreign film buffs, for sure. Also, those interested in "true crime" dramas.