While Hayek isn't bad, Lola is a stock character, and very little that transpires after her arrival recovers the interest so beautifully constructed in the beginning.

It is wistful and nostalgic, and at the same time full of restless curiosity.

The film's appeal has less to do with plot than mood. Demy balances his father's romanticism and his mother's naturalism, taking cues from both.

Compelling in places, and gorgeous-looking all the way through. But what starts as an absorbing meditation on one man's struggle with his personal heritage soon dissolves into something else, and the second thing is a lot less interesting.