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(More customer reviews)"In the United States things have changed a lot, and it's hard to make good small films now. The avaricious studios couldn't care less about good films."--Woody Allen.
Woody Allen has said that European audiences are more receptive to his films these days than American audiences. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) is his fourth European movie, and in many ways his most French film yet. Set in Avilés, Barcelona, and Oviedo, Vicky Cristina Barcelona follows Allen's London films, Match Point (2005), Scoop (2006), and Cassandra's Dream (2007). It stars Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation), Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), Patricia Clarkson, and Penélope Cruz (Volver), and tells the story of a lovers' threesome. Shortly after arriving in Barcelona on vacation, two young American women in their 20s, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Johansson), are invited by a smooth-talking artist, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) to spend a weekend in Oviedo, drinking wine and making love with him. Because she is engaged to be married, pragmatic Vicky is reluctant at first. Cristina, however, is open to the seduction. The two women accept Juan Antonio's proposal, and accompany him to Oviedo, where they soon discover the painter has a thing for his beautiful, but emotionally unstable estranged-wife, María Elena (Cruz). After Juan and Vicky drink wine and make love, Cristina, Juan, and María Elena soon find themselves living together. It becomes evident to Cristina that Juan Antonio and María Elena are still madly in love with each other. Bardem and Cruz bring a chemistry to the screen that sizzles. Ultimately, the film then becomes a fascinating Woody Allen meets Éric Rohmer (Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales - Criterion Collection) meets Pedro Almodóvar (Volver) exploration of the dynamics of this sexually free-spirited lovers' threesome, contrasted by Vicky's more conventional relationship with her dull, New York buttoned-down love interest, Doug (Chris Messina). Just as Manhattan was central to Manhattan, Barcelona features prominantly in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, especially Gaudí's Park Guell. Much like a good French film, this brilliant movie ends on a note that is both poignant and sad, with everyone a little wiser in the end. Once the celluloid love poet of Manhattan, with Vicky Cristina Barcelona Allen reveals he is much wiser now when it comes to the ways of the heart. It is "a very sad film" (as Allen calls it) only because of the message it sends about relationships. Some couples settle for convention rather than the madness of real love. Others, like Juan Antonio and Maria Elena, experience real love with the level of chemistry we might call "soulmates," only to find they cannot live together. To use an old cliche, Juan Antonio can't live with Maria Elena, but can't live without her. Allen seems to suggest that all we can really hope for in the end, after stumbling around in any relationship, is a little wisdom. Dare I say that this is Woody Allen's best work since Hannah and Her Sisters? Unlike that film, however, this is a really good film Allen could have never made in Hollywood, which generally prefers feel-good love stories with happily-ever-after endings.
12/05/08 Update: Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Jarvier Bardem, Rebecca Hall, and Penélope Cruz all received nods for Golden Globe Awards this week.
G. Merritt
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Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), Oscar nominee Penelope Cruz (Volver) and Golden Globe nominee Scarlett Johansson (The Nanny Diaries) light up the stunning city of Barcelona in this sexy romantic comedy. Vicky and Cristina are two young Americans spending a summer in Spain, who meet a charming Casanova and his beautiful but volatile ex-wife. When they all become romantically entangled, the smoldering sparks begin to fly in hilarious fashion. Critics rave, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is one of Woody Allen s finest films, with bravura performances from its incredible cast (Jeffrey Lyons, Reel Talk/NBC).
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