Vicky Cristina Barcelona

I watched this film a few days after I had seen Allen's previous effort, Cassandra's Dream, and I must admit that I was going through a bit of a spell with him because, over the last decade I have almost had to defend his films that I have liked, while also acknowledging the man that are average or worse. However, like Spike Lee, I rarely find a film of his that isn't worth seeing – whether it is any good or not being another question. Vicky Cristina Barcelona was out in the US and the fact that I had access to a Woody Allen film suggested that it was better than some of his more recent work (a lot of which I never got the chance to see in any cinema) but I was also wary because this film was well-known for one specific thing and I figured that perhaps it was being helped by that, with the studio hoping the "A Woody Allen film" tag wouldn't put the teenage male crowd off paying to see what they came for!

I needn't have worried because it is like the man behind Cassandra's Dream and this film cannot be the same person. It is a excellent film and one that Allen's fans will love and perhaps, just perhaps, it may even be good enough to win over those that wouldn't give him the time of day far less the price of a cinema ticket. It helps that the film is firmly back on themes that Allen has done so well in the past – matters of the heart, of passion, of love, of lust, of marriage. The whole film plays in its entirety just like one of the many "discussion" scenes where the characters discuss these matters over coffee etc and it is this consistency that makes it such a joy because what we see minute to minute engages and that is pretty much what we get from the film as a whole – but not as a sum of the parts but as the whole producing the same as the parts but in a different way. This interests me and it is delivered with a colour and flamboyance that somehow never takes away from the intelligence and thoughtfulness behind the writing; I'm not sure how he did it because the narrative is so wild that it could easily have been silly, but he holds it together without it even looking difficult.

The use of a narrator concerned me at first – particularly since I had just seen Allen S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G everything out in big dialogue chunks in Cassandra's Dream but on the contrary here the narrator is used to link and mostly compliments by being droll and being a great voice (good casting job there). The cast are what will attract an audience to this film and, beyond them just being some very big names, they are all excellent. Bardem is just so effortlessly sexual and sensual that he perfectly fits Allen's writing of this passionate, creative love versus the steady and frankly dull love of Messina's Doug. Hall essentially takes the traditional Allen role but makes it work more than others trying it have done. She doesn't take the mannerisms so much as getting the character right and she is the heart of the film, thrown between passionate love and reliable love. No question which Cruz represents and she does it really, really well. Out of sight for the majority of the film she strikes like a thunder storm, totally wild and full of fire – but not to the point where she is unattractive or not tempting, which would have taken away from what she was trying to be. Johansson is easily the least of these talented names but even she does well; I won't say brilliant but she was good. Again, Welch was a good choice for narrator and I always enjoy Clarkson even if she has limited times to shine here.

Allen's direction is really good in regards the actors but of equal note is how he and Spanish cinematographer Aguirresarobe have delivered Barcelona to the viewer. The city contributed towards the making of the film and on the evidence of this it will be money well spent. The city looks beautiful, with great landscapes, plenty of colour to match the passion and a real sense that this is a place where art, passion and inspired sex is all around. Beyond being just wallpaper, this is of course a key part of the film's world and it is another part of the reason that this hooked me so easily.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona will likely be gushed over in the same way that any recent Woody Allen that isn't rubbish is hailed as a "return to form" etc. On this occasion though, such praise is not a knee-jerk but fully deserved. The film is intelligent, passionate, comic, free-flowing and enjoyably light. It looks the part and the cast take the natural, smart script and make the absolute most of it. I guess if you dislike Woody Allen then none of this will matter but to those that even have a liking for his better work, this film will hit the spot. It has been a while since I have had the words "excellent" and "Woody Allen film" together in the same sentence, but this is an excellent Woody Allen film.

Adventurous Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) and her cultured reserved friend Vicky (Rebecca Hall) go vacationing in Barcelona. They get approached by the over confident Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem). Juan immediately propositions them. Cristina is interested, but Vicky is incensed over his presumptuousness. As the two girls travel with him, their trio is turned into chaos by the wild Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz).

Woody Allen has created one of his most fascinating films outside of New York. There is only one problem; The Voice Overs. It doesn't stop. It drowns out the film. I don't even know why Woody thought it's a good idea to constantly unceasingly drone on and on and on. And is there anybody less interesting doing narrations? It sucks out the passion in the film.

Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson were good at their particular roles. Javier Bardem is extremely fascinating and seemingly so realistic getting beautiful women with his confidence. But Penélope Cruz blows everybody away.

6 February 2009. Vicky Christina Barcelona The title of the movie refers to the names of two young women, Vicky and Christina who visit Barcelona Spain and encounter an attractive, brash, seductive, and articulate Spanish man who raises doubts and well as insights in these women. Unfortunately the movie is severely hampered by a distracting, unnecessary voice over, opens earlier with a nice but repetitious musical rendition, and the overly incessant voice of Woody Allen who wrote and directed the movie. It is almost inescapable from experiencing the women artificially parroting Mr. Allen's unique way of thinking and talking which only adds to the awkwardness of the movie.

The voice-over is so basically repetitious explaining most of the particulars of what is going on in the movie that it interferes with the acting and expressive ability to allow the performers from telling the story. The movie experience is like having to sit through to separate and parallel portrayal of the same events. The voice-over only serves to either implicitly send out the message that the audience is either too dumb to understand what's going on or the actors are so bad that they can't perform sufficient to relay the story by themselves. A good example is the severe but perhaps unjustified criticism of the voice-over narrative (relatively scarce actually) in Blade Runner (1982) which in that movie provided additional mental thoughts of Harrison Ford that added substance to the movie instead of just supplanted or stated the obvious as in this movie.

And why the use of the flashback to reveal an additional relational subplot? To its credit, Vicky Christina Barcelona eventually evolves into a more in-depth and meaningful look at the consequences, complications of relationships often overlooked or skimmed over in other dramatic or romantic comedies. However, this relational "situational" marriage theme was also explored with the release the same year (2008) of "Revolutionary Road" with as much or more intensity or cinematic impact dealing with a 1950s period piece starring Leo DeCaprio and Kate Winslet who are provided with a script that allows them freedom to act the roles and lives they are portraying instead of Allen's intellectualizing musing of these deep relational uneasy themes.

The last part of the movie is cinematically different from the rest of the movie, more hurried, more explanatory, more quickly edited - sort like pushing out a work in progress. By the end, this rather long slice of life piece ends up dissatisfying unable to quench the thirst of an experiential series of events, and neither do the characters in the movie.

Everyone acts very well, and the whole film would have been really good if it hadn't been for this weird narrator the whole way through who sounded like he was telling children a story even when saying things like "they went to bed together". It was weird. I also feel if it had been more dialogue based we could have got a greater grasp of the characters. I watched it without subtitles but understood the relationship of Juan Antonio and his ex-wife (mostly spoken in Spanish) than I did of Doug and Vicky which just seemed to lack a huge amount of depth. There needed to be some redeeming feature Vicky and Doug's relationship.

Anyway well acted but yeah the narrator ruins it. Javier Bardem is amazing as usual.

Who wouldn't like this film, and what's not to like? You have three of the most beautiful actresses working this century in Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz and Rebecca Hall, traipsing across some of the most gorgeous landscapes here on planet Earth.

And they're kickin' it with one of the coolest dudes in Javier Braden.

Oh, and it's summertime.

In Spain, in case you didn't catch that.

Look, some movies are just good for the ride, or cruise.

Like a vacation.

I'll tag along.

Oh, there's twists and turns and bumpy roads a strange bedfellows, but I don't mind.

I'm just taking it all in and falling deeper in love with Rebecca Hall, who shines the brightest as per usual.

Thankfully, the elder director isn't in front of the camera in this one with these young actresses falling for him.

Movies don't have to change your life all the time, but can they take you some place nice for under two hours?

Yes, they can.

And this one does.