Barcelona Lovers Javier Bardem and Rebecca Hall
Red Carpet Report: Vicky Cristina Barcelona

PREMIERE'S REVIEW (posted 8/14/08)

With Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Woody Allen accomplishes the goal he hoped to achieve with Melinda and Melinda. Allen's work usually revels in tonal extremes — generally, screwball comedy or brooding melodrama — and his attempt to mix the two in Melinda was drastically miscalculated. No wonder he followed it up with Match Point, another brooding melodrama and an obvious about-face back to one end of the predictable Woodyville spectrum.

While far from transcendent, Vicky Cristina Barcelona manages to elegantly balance this duality, providing a setting so distinct from anything else in Allen's oeuvre that it creates the pleasurable illusion of something completely different. Even the music, led by flamenco guitars and Spanish love songs, are a distinct change from Allen's typical jazz soundtrack. The subsequent plot offers little in the way of inspiration, but plenty in the way of amusement — a love triangle (or is it a square?) featuring two rather clueless American tourists, two rather ostentatious Spanish romantics, and one rather droll narrator.

It's the omniscient narrator, coupled with a breezy soundtrack, that immediately situates the movie in Allen's world. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), best buds spending the summer in Spain, take opposite stances on the meaning of love. Vicky is allegedly content to settle down with her boring fiancé Mark (Chris Messina) while Cristina extols the virtues of sexual hedonism. Few writers can make such pointless verbosity sound fun, but Allen finds some semblance of charm in their innocent disagreement, which fluidly lays out the subsequent conflict. Although not every frame of Vicky Cristina Barcelona (gorgeously photographed with a lavish color scheme by Javier Aguirresarobe) seems credible, Allen does craft a fairly observant account of human behavior, so that the solemn aspects don't put a damper on the humor, or vice versa.

Into the picture strides the earnestly suave Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), a smooth-talking painter who approaches them at a restaurant to propose a weekend getaway and possible threesome. The shocked and titillated duo commits to nothing but nonetheless accompany him; as the way these things go, it blossoms into much more than that. Both women fall for the stereotypically passionate Juan Antonio; Vicky tries to keep her attraction a secret while Cristina melts into the artist's arms, which are naturally wide enough to encompass more than a single smitten body. That's why, when Juan Antonio suddenly has to deal with the arrival of his ferociously angry diva of an ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz, marvelously filled with rage), Cristina quickly accepts her as a part of the relationship.

Cristina brags to Vicky and Mark about their tidy triad in much the same way the female love scenes have been overblown by the media. Despite his career-spanning obsession with sex, Allen lacks much skill at showing it. Nevertheless, the sequence still introduces an engaging twist that keeps the story in motion, even though Allen can't resist stopping the action for more aimless discourse. "Let's not get into one of those turgid categorical imperative arguments," Vicky says when her husband decries Cristina's promiscuity, adding, "Whatever works." Incidentally, Whatever Works is the title of Allen's next charmer, a romantic comedy starring Larry David. It might be the director's mantra.

— Eric Kohn