Don't believe the reviews of this movie. This movie shocks and upsets the audience repeatedly. The main character is unlikable. Her actions are inexplicable. Several times she goes out of her way to try to destroy people for no particular reason. The rest of the time she seems withdrawn and empty.
The main character is a forty-ish woman in Tokyo who takes an English class where she has to don a crazy blond wig and adopt an American name. Josh Hartnett plays the English teacher. Not a bad premise, but it is surrounded by darkness.
FROM HERE ON THIS REVIEW IS FULL OF SPOILERS
In the beginning of the movie someone jumps to their death in a train station. The main character, "Lucy" lives in a hoarded up apartment, and seems largely empty when she is not destroying someone for no reason. She horribly insults a heavy, older co-worker at that woman's retirement party. The woman has worked for the company for forty years. Lucy tells her, apropos of nothing, that she is a fat loser and the other workers say she is delusional behind her back.
The English teacher is Lucy's niece's boyfriend. Apropos of very little, Lucy decides to follow him to California and try to steal him. It's hard to see what is driving this character, who seems empty, vacant, and devoid of humanity and feminity.
The one sex scene is devoid of sensuality. Lucy basically sexually assaults Josh Hartnett's character while he is stuck in a car seat. Then more happens. In keeping with the rules for movie sex scenes, this one is devoid of foreplay. This from an artsy female director.
Josh Hartnett's character and Lucy's niece have matching tattoos of the word "Love" on their forearms. Although he would like to forget their car encounter, after it Lucy goes out and gets a duplicate of this tattoo on HER forearm.
Lucy, her sister, and the English teacher catch up with the niece in San Diego where she fled to escape problems in her relationship that predated Lucy. Lucy and her niece find an unusually precarious sea cliff to sit and talk. It is here that Lucy chooses to reveal that she has slept with her young niece's boyfriend. The young woman jumps from the cliff and appears to have died.
Later you see she is alive but seriously messed up.
Back in Tokyo Lucy attempts suicide by taking pills from a blister pack after being fired from her job. Presumably she was fired for her abusive outburst against her older co-worker. She is saved by a fellow student from her English class who comes by her apartment. Miraculously he cures her overdose by shooting water into her mouth from a shower attachment, cause apparently that's how that works in Japan. Then she vomits. Then she tries to get it on with him, but he says, "You're not yourself right now." That's the end.
The main character is a forty-ish woman in Tokyo who takes an English class where she has to don a crazy blond wig and adopt an American name. Josh Hartnett plays the English teacher. Not a bad premise, but it is surrounded by darkness.
FROM HERE ON THIS REVIEW IS FULL OF SPOILERS
In the beginning of the movie someone jumps to their death in a train station. The main character, "Lucy" lives in a hoarded up apartment, and seems largely empty when she is not destroying someone for no reason. She horribly insults a heavy, older co-worker at that woman's retirement party. The woman has worked for the company for forty years. Lucy tells her, apropos of nothing, that she is a fat loser and the other workers say she is delusional behind her back.
The English teacher is Lucy's niece's boyfriend. Apropos of very little, Lucy decides to follow him to California and try to steal him. It's hard to see what is driving this character, who seems empty, vacant, and devoid of humanity and feminity.
The one sex scene is devoid of sensuality. Lucy basically sexually assaults Josh Hartnett's character while he is stuck in a car seat. Then more happens. In keeping with the rules for movie sex scenes, this one is devoid of foreplay. This from an artsy female director.
Josh Hartnett's character and Lucy's niece have matching tattoos of the word "Love" on their forearms. Although he would like to forget their car encounter, after it Lucy goes out and gets a duplicate of this tattoo on HER forearm.
Lucy, her sister, and the English teacher catch up with the niece in San Diego where she fled to escape problems in her relationship that predated Lucy. Lucy and her niece find an unusually precarious sea cliff to sit and talk. It is here that Lucy chooses to reveal that she has slept with her young niece's boyfriend. The young woman jumps from the cliff and appears to have died.
Later you see she is alive but seriously messed up.
Back in Tokyo Lucy attempts suicide by taking pills from a blister pack after being fired from her job. Presumably she was fired for her abusive outburst against her older co-worker. She is saved by a fellow student from her English class who comes by her apartment. Miraculously he cures her overdose by shooting water into her mouth from a shower attachment, cause apparently that's how that works in Japan. Then she vomits. Then she tries to get it on with him, but he says, "You're not yourself right now." That's the end.