Noted Spanish director Vicente Aranda explores female sensuality and male vanity in this slick erotic thriller. Stunningly beautiful Carmen (Aitana Sanchez Gijon) works at an orange packing factory and is engaged to be married to Antonio (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), a long-distance trucker who works for the same company. One day during a freak rainstorm, Antonio happens upon an accident involving one of his plant's fellow truck drivers. When he helps sift through the debris, he discovers a photograph of some guy cozying up to his bikini-clad fiancée. Confronted with the incriminating picture, she admits to having dated the man a long time ago, but this does little to assuage Antonio's mounting jealousy. When he interrogates Carmen's best friend, he learns little more than that the man's name is Jose. Antonio's quiet stewing over his girlfriend's romantic history suddenly explodes into violence, threatening their impeding marriage. Carmen maintains that she only wants to get pregnant and be a good wife for him. Antonio eventually calms down, apologizes profusely, and the two get married. Yet in spite of numerous lovingly photographed rounds of post-marital sex, Antonio's jealousy over Jose continues to torment him. He ultimately finds Jose and forces his wife to meet her ex-flame. The emotional fallout from the encounter shocks all involved. Celos was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival.
~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide