Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall
Director: Woody Allen
Release Date: August 15, 2008
Running Time: 96 min
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Distributor: The Weinstein Company

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Review by David DiMichele

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Like a refreshing beverage on a hot summer's day, Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona quenches the thirsty desire for a top of the tier romantic comedy. The sundrenched landscapes and spacious green fields of Barcelona offer many more dimensions for influential occurrences than a normal rom-com does. You may discover a desire to jump into the movie and experience the beautiful scenery firsthand. Allen has the knack of surrounding his films with an aura of gold that eventually encapsulate us in the lives of his characters.

After the first meeting at a dinner table, Allen unleashes his greatest talent: the unique way his camera captures the most sensual scenes. Reluctant to change his style, he gives us even more of it as he gathers up his characters and submits them to even more intimate bonding opportunities. Then it's up to the actors to do their part, which in this case they definitely achieve. This is why he’s been making movies for some forty-odd years. His films keep achieving the kind of reality that is seldom found within the hi-tech world of Hollywood. Allen keeps it pure and simple, never ignoring his ability to create reality with A-list actors. Nothing is forced: he simply lets them relinquish themselves and act with truth.

With this movie he ventures beyond the dinner table to include other settings that are more serene and erotic. We see two of our characters talking secretively of a forbidden love affair behind a bush at a special gathering, and others who make love in a dark room where the photos act as pillows and cushions while two passionate lovers lock lips for the first time.

Allen tells his story using voiceover, a technique that is usually frowned upon and labeled lazy. That doesn’t hold true here as Allen blends it with the ongoing story (which he wrote) to create a fascinating world with an almost fable-like feeling.

As two tourists, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), take a taxi in Barcelona, the narrator tells us what we need to know right off the bat. Vicky is the play-it-safe type who is finishing up her master’s degree in architecture and is engaged to a by-the-book business man. Cristina is described as the more outgoing of the two - a struggling artist (directing and photography) and lover. While Vicky seems to have her head on straight, Cristina is looking for some action. They are spending the summer at a fellow American’s home, to lie back, study and enjoy the scenery.

When Vicky and Cristina go out to dinner they meet Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), an expressive artist who has an appetite for threesomes. Bardem, in a total 180 degree rotation from his role in No Country For Old Men, is a soft-spoken hunk who makes the two girls an erotic offer: join him on his plane to a little town in Spain for a weekend of good eating, delicious wines, sightseeing and eventually….making love. Vicky, the uptight one, rejects, while Cristina, in a sexual trance, tries to talk her into it.

It goes according to his plans but with some baggage attached: Antonio's ex-wife Maria (Penelope Cruz, who is dynamite) who tried to kill first him and later herself, comes back to into his life. To tell what transpires next will ruin what Allen maps out with such perfection.

Although the scenery is beautiful, Allen doesn’t simply sightsee the entire time. While most of the film is a Hallmark card, he does manage to ask one of the tough questions of life: do we really know what the nature of love is? Our innate ability to love, or to love freely and to be pleased with our choice, is put under a microscope. As one of those rare directors who writes great parts for women, Allen understands their problems and point's of view. The women depicted within this film are women who go with the flow and then begin to kick and scream when they don’t get what they want. Juan is the man that Maria, Vicky and Cristina all want. Not just for his looks, but for the way his life seems to set its own course and sail against destiny. There’s only one educated person on this subject in the film. It happens to be one of the fellow Americans, Judy (Patricia Clarkson) who houses the two girls for the summer. She knows from firsthand experience how tough life can be when you don’t go after someone you love. An entire lifetime can end in the terminal fate of dread and a lifeless marriage. Isn’t it better to experience passion at least once rather than never having taken the opportunity?

Once one of the lovers in the movie has had a taste of the type of man she never thought she could love (an artistic womanizer), she can’t look beyond him. It’s the artistic world Allen relishes, and he believes women should too. When not combined in any way, there’s a lack of life to be found within women. Watch how he captures the subtle candlelit dinners, infused with couples lingering over wine and the harrowing Spanish guitar scene which is the best moment in the film. All are scenes in which Juan is involved. Juan is the embodiment of freedom and wild desires that women must have in their lives. When they’re not with him they’re zombies pursuing everyday activities devoid of entertainment. I love how Allen presents this summer as the one summer that each character will never forget. The summer when each learned something about life and themselves. Better knowledge than any college degree can offer.

Film Rating: *** out of ****

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