Vicky Cristina Barcelona - (8.5/10) Finally! I'm a huge Woody Allen fan and think that some of his 1970s and 1980s movies are some of the best American movies made in my lifetime. But after Deconstructing Harry in 1997, he seemed to lose his muse. Although he's had a few glimmers of hope during those years, it's been really difficult watching him also make some embarrasingly bad movies over the past 10 years. It's hard to believe that the same man who wrote and directed such gems as 'Manhatten', 'Annie Hall, and 'Hannah and her Sisters' was capable of doing something as pedestrian as 'Hollywood Ending'.
A few years ago he seemed to reignite his creative spark by getting out of New York (the setting for the vast majority of his stories) and he headed to London. He made 'Match Point' which while a weaker retelling of the main philosopical story told in the excellent 'Crimes and Misdemeanors', at least re-established him as a competent storyteller (and earned himself an Oscar nomination to boot). He stayed in London for his next movie, 'Scoop', which while still okay, was less well-received. So now he heads south to Barcelona as the setting of his latest movie. And with a romantic Spanish backdrop, Woody has made what is easily his best movie in a decade.
A love pentangle involving the very charismatic and attractive fivesome of Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Rebecca Hall, and Chris Messina provides plenty of twists, turns, drama, and hilarious moments to make the 96 minute runtime seem too short - a rare feeling to get when you walk out of a cinema. The story explores the difference between two women's philosophies in love. Vicky (played by Hall) is completely rational and is all about stability, commitment, starting a family, and living the picket fence dream. Cristina (played by Johansson) is far less rational, with her primary drivers being passion, excitement, lust, and having grand experiences, both romantic and sexual. In reality, the story is played out by two characters, but is really a meditation on the internal struggle every person feels as they try to balance both of these powerful desires.
Bardem and Cruz are the intringuing, exciting and sexy temptations, while Messina plays the part of the stable (and rich and boring) path. Obviously Woody's biases come to the fore in how he portrays his protagonists, but he still leaves the ending quite open to different conclusions. The side story involving Clarkson and her loveless marriage provides a nice continuity to the overall plot.
The movie certainly isn't perfect. I've always maintained that somewhere in the late 1990s Woody lost his touch with real people. And this movie still has some of that clunkiness and awkward dialogue. And it's amusing to see his protagonist taking jabs at American materialism while she rides in her lover's Alfa Romeo while staying at luxurious villas and hotels. In Woody Allen's world it seems like everyone is either an artist or Wall Street investment banker and nothing in between. But these are just minor quibbles - what matters is whether or not he can tell a story that the "non-elite" can relate to, and in 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona', he has succeeded.
Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall, and especially Penelope Cruz put in fantastic performances, and Messina is pasable as the regular guy who is easy to dislike. Scarlett Johansson on the other hand has a few too many moments where her acting ability are highly dubious, which is too bad because even I have a hard time taking my eyes off of her when she's on screen. The Spanish setting adds a lot to the romantic mood of the film. One thing that might put some off is the narration, which at times seems a little too omnipresent. But in retrospect, I thought while it could have been toned down a little, it was a nice way to tell the story, making the movie seem kind of like a little fairy tale on film.
