Vicky Christina Barcelona (***)

Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson
Seen: January 15th 2009

*** Out of ****

Woody Allen has never really impressed me that much, Scoop was mildly entertaining pulp, I really didn’t enjoy Match Point, Small Time Crooks was amusing, and the rest of his films I’ve never really flocked to after seeing the trailer. But Vicky Christina Barcelona, to me, was something completely different. If you can get your mind around the perpetual polygamy and liberal views in the relationships portrayed in this film, it actually becomes very enjoyable.

Vicky (Hall), and Christina (Johansson) are two young women who go on holiday to Spain, and in particular Barcelona. They stay with a distant relative of Vicky’s, Judy (Clarkson), where the practical and conservative Vicky wants to use the time for studying her masters in Catalan identity, and the wilder and spontaneous Christina is merely there for fun and games. At an art exhibition they attend with Judy, Christina notices Juan Antonio (Bardem) and she becomes intrigued with him upon hearing that he had a violent domestic dispute with his wife, a thing that disturbs Vicky quite a lot.

Later that evening, Juan Antonio approaches the two in a restaurant, offering them a weekend in Oviedo, where they will enjoy a weekend of leisure and love-making. Vicky is offended and wants to get out of the offer at any cost, since she is engaged (to the very unromantic Doug), but Christina is further interested and joins them. Juan Antonio flies them to Oviedo in a small plane, and upon arriving Vicky refuses an invitation to Juan Antonio’s room, while Christina accepts. But Christina comes down with a terrible sickness before anything can happen, and she ends up in bed all weekend.

Now Vicky has to spend the entire weekend with Juan Antonio, and as she gets to know him, her opinion slowly starts changing to one of the same interest Christina displayed only one day earlier. And so it goes on and on, with everyone falling for everyone at some stage during the film, with romantic allegiances shifting either very subtly of violently suddenly, with Juan Antonio’s ex-wife, Maria Elena (Cruz) also coming back into Juan Antonio’s life. In Maria Elena, Penelope Cruz acts circles around anyone else in this film, and, together with Elegy, this converted me to a Penelope Cruz fan. She is an absolutely fantastic actress, and it is a shame that this talent was not always evident in earlier years with her being used in film more for her beauty than her acting skill.

Of course things can’t go on running smoothly in such intricate love/lust machinations, and it doesn’t take long for everyone to clash, momentarily hate each other, and conditionally forgive each other and make other strange and almost unbelievable choices as only Woody Allen can deliver. Vicky Christina Barcelona is a strange little film that is also very enjoyable, even though the morals have long since been completely left by the side of the road, and if you enjoy the work of any of the actors I can recommend the film as a case study of some of their best (Cruz) and most subtle (Bardem) work to grace the silver screen in quite some time.