When a film's super-explicit sex scenes are the least remarkable thing about it, you know you're onto a winner and indeed Sex and Lucia is arguably a contender for one of the best films of the year.

What starts off relatively unpromisingly as a Betty Blue knock-off (struggling writer finds his muse in a sexy, free-spirited girl) slowly weaves into a multi-faceted exotic mystery story concerning love, destiny, grief and redemption. It's a film you can really lose yourself in.

Whereas Y Tu Mama Tambien was a sex comedy which considered itself too smart to have a happy ending, Sex and Lucia isn't afraid to confront its characters head-on with the unpleasant aspects of life but still has the cojones to build inexorably towards a positive, meaningful climax. Which makes it a more important, successful film in my book.

And while Paz Vega will rightly gain a lot of attention in the title role as Lucia, the film to me is almost stolen from under her nose by her Talk To Her co-star Elena Anaya (above right) in a small but pivotal role as the seductive childminder Belen. She has the most expressive eyes I've seen in a long time. Greatness surely beckons.

Related link: Download the Sex And Lucia trailer (requires Quicktime).