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Woody Allen sustains his unmatchable filmmaking pace of helming at least one movie every year (keeping this up since 1982) with 2008's Vicky Cristina Barcelona; this intricate and thoroughly enjoyable examination of the vagaries of love. That the 72-year-old writer/director still manages to say something about the subject is impressive enough, but the fact that he successfully expresses himself through two young women makes this accomplishment all the more stunning. Vicky Cristina Barcelona marks Allen's fourth (and final) consecutive film shot outside of the United States (returning to New York for his 2009 release). The European locales of Allen's 2005-2008 body of work (Match Point, Scoop, Cassandra's Dream and the film in question) have given his pictures a less insular feel, and the picturesque location work of Vicky Cristina Barcelona is particularly stunning. Allen's 2008 project also succeeds due to the enchanting cast, the pleasant atmosphere, and the delightful soundtrack (consisting of lovely local music).
As the movie opens, the soon-to-be-married Vicky (Hall) and her best friend Cristina (Johansson) are arriving in Barcelona for a vacation. Not long after their arrival they meet Juan Antonio (Bardem); a charming Spaniard painter who invites the two girls to spend the weekend with him in a nearby town. Cristina - an impulsive romantic - loves the idea, whereas the more analytical Vicky - with her fiancé waiting back home - is uncertain. After some persuasion, the ladies agree to accompany Juan Antonio, and (predictably) they both quickly become enamoured with him. But Juan Antonio's fiery ex-wife Maria Elena (Cruz), with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, re-enters his life in the wake of a suicide attempt. To further complicate matters, Vicky's fiancé Doug (Messina) decides to travel to Barcelona to surprise Vicky with an impromptu wedding.
The relationship between Juan Antonio and Maria Elena is especially fascinating. As a couple they represent a romantic cliché: the two lovers who are meant to be together, but whose relationship cannot ever work on account of tragic flaws in their personalities. As it turns out, Cristina is the element their previous relationships have lacked - she functions as an effective mood stabiliser. Thus, a threesome is created. The much-hyped liplock between Cruz and Johansson is a consequence of this...but settle down, tiger, as there's precious little making out to be found here.
Allen employs a classic "summer relationship abroad" story - what happens in Barcelona stays in Barcelona - and uses it as a platform on which to ponder what love means to each of his characters. Framed by an expository voice-over, Vicky Cristina Barcelona carries the intentional feel of a short story - a contemporary parable, perhaps - on the enduring difficulties of relationships and the pursuit for love. Unfortunately, deliberate or not, Woody Allen's checklist of clichés runs long. Both Vicky and Cristina are archetypal American travellers; one with a life and fiancé back home, the other dictated by desire and open to any experience. Enter Spaniard caricatures: the interesting stranger who opens the girls' souls to art, and his fiery ex-lover driven by fervour and insanity. The clichés are extremely detrimental. Luckily, though, the characters are beguiling nonetheless and the film entertains to no end. Allen's European postcard works as breezy entertainment and is a dosage of pure joy.
Despite the clichés, the four central protagonists do come across as actual people. It most certainly helps that writer/director Allen has amassed such a magnificent cast to bring these characters to life. There's a credible spark of chemistry between all of them, and Javier Bardem in particular is astoundingly charming. Not many men could proposition two women within a few minutes of meeting them before convincing them to spend a romantic weekend with him in an unfamiliar city. The immaculate Bardem makes this entirely believable rather than just a silly male fantasy. Vicky Cristina Barcelona is sultry without ever coming across as exploitative, and this intensity is only amplified by the sparkling wit of Allen's dialogue.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona moves at a brisk pace and is light on its feet. It engages an audience in its central discussion (about love) without ever being too overbearing about it. Most impressive about Woody Allen's more modern output is the remarkable control he exerts over his camera. His storytelling approach becomes increasingly more efficient, opting to travel down the most direct route to his destination without taking detours into superfluous exposition. In actual fact, this time Allen utilises an omniscient narrator (voiced by actor Christopher Evan Welch) to dispense explanations wherever necessary, which allows him to plunge straight into the story and move quickly over transitional moments. This enables Allen to pack a great deal of story into a tight 96-minute running time. However, the narrator is definitely overused. Half the time there's nothing insightful or witty about the disembodied observations - the narrator states the obvious! One of the most basic rules of filmmaking is "show, don't tell". Overusing the narrator allows Allen to re-write the rule as "tell, don't show". The clichés, coupled with the excessive narration, are the only missteps of an otherwise fine motion picture.
Woody Allen has casting down to a science at this point. Javier Bardem won an Academy Award in 2008 for his performance as one of the creepiest killers ever to walk the earth in No Country for Old Men. In Allen's movie, the actor oozes charisma as the charming Spanish painter. Penélope Cruz won an Oscar for her sizzling performance here as the hot-blooded Maria Elena.
Bardem and Cruz are both spectacular! The repartee between them is energising and dynamic; the pair switching from English to Spanish (sometimes in mid-sentence) with absolutely mesmerising precision. Their relationship feels so undeniably authentic. The years of pain, anguish, understanding and love is evident in their expressions and the way they communicate.
Scarlett Johansson (Allen's latest woman of choice) appears as Cristina; an artist struggling to find her voice, flirting with poetry and photography as a replacement for filmmaking. Johansson's portrayal is convincing and perfectly subdued. The actress comes across as natural as opposed to Hollywood, and this is a quality spread across to everyone in the cast (in fact Allen is sublime at capturing naturalistic performances). Rebecca Hall (the least-known of the primary cast) gives a deep, heartfelt performance as Vicky; a grad student fascinated by Catalan culture who has decided to travel to Barcelona to absorb it firsthand. Hall's portrayal is extremely enthralling; allowing a viewer to feel for her awkward position.
Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona doesn't shrug love off merely as an abstract destination for stock characters to chase for ninety minutes. The director is instead more fascinated by the pursuit; how it transforms and torments, and how love isn't merely an interchangeable, simply defined notion but a connection that can mean different things to different people. Allen strikes a terrific balance between light-hearted romance and an intelligent examination of the pursuit of love. He does so with a set of vividly-drawn, albeit clichéd characters brought to life by a delightful cast. Vicky Cristina Barcelona may begin as a conventional concept of a romantic summer in Europe, but it soon transforms into a delectably amusing and poignant motion picture which is just as much fun for the audience as it is for the aging writer/director. Allen's most enduring films have been clever, funny and romantic with a touch of melancholy, and that's definitely the case here. Maybe it's the foreign languages or the gaudy locations, but whatever the case Woody Allen seems to have regained his ability to make exasperating characters come off as alluring, and make an outright fantasy seem achievable. And his efforts here earned him a Golden Globe for Best Picture (Comedy or Musical).
7.8/10
