San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle

Sexy, peculiar and always entertaining.

New York Daily News by Jami Bernard

The sexy, psycho Mad Love is like a Spanish "The Story of Adele H.," in which a woman loves once and only once, to the point of self-destruction, in the days before Prozac.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker

Ayala gives Joan a fiery, full-blooded passion and Aranda challenges Pedro Almodovar in the arena of self-destructive love, obsessive passion and sweaty cinematic sex. It's the lustiest costume drama in years.

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

Succeeds as a full-bodied diversion because it takes even its silly elements seriously. If you're in the mood for impressive castles and sumptuous costumes, torch-lit processions and decorative nudity, this is the place to turn.

New Times (L.A.) by Andy Klein

At 75, Aranda can still make his actors sizzle on the screen as well as he did 10 years ago in "Lovers." The explicitly hot bits here may be few and far between, but what there is of them is choice.

Washington Post by Michael O'Sullivan

A bodice-ripper for intellectuals.

Miami Herald by Connie Ogle

It's López de Ayala's show, and she's relentless in her energy and passion.

Chicago Tribune by Loren King

Star Pilar Lopez de Ayala is such a feisty, striking presence, and the film so conventional in its depiction of a jealous and insatiable love, that it is hard to see Juana as anything other than a typical soap opera heroine.

L.A. Weekly by Daniel Fienberg

de Ayala is required to supply too much of the energy in a film that is, overall, far too staid for its subject matter.

L.A. Weekly by Dan Fienberg

de Ayala is required to supply too much of the energy in a film that is, overall, far too staid for its subject matter.

The A.V. Club by Nathan Rabin

At heart it's a randy, oversexed soap opera in period garb.

The New York Times by A.O. Scott

An often watchable, though goofy and lurid, blast of a costume drama set in the late 15th century.

New York Post by V.A. Musetto

Pleasing to the eye, with lavish sets, ravishing costumes and two great-looking stars. Unfortunately, there is little else to recommend this overwrought, melodramatic bodice-ripper.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Rick Groen

Nothing more or less than an outright bodice-ripper -- it should have ditched the artsy pretensions and revelled in the entertaining shallows.

Boston Globe by Wesley Morris

Like an ''Afterschool Special'' with costumes by Gianni Versace, Mad Love looks better than it feels.

Village Voice by Michael Atkinson

Adroit but finally a trifle flat, Mad Love doesn't galvanize its outrage the way, say, Jane Campion might have done, but at least it possesses some.