moviereview - Vicky Cristina Barcelona

VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA

	Vicky and Cristina, best friends from New York, travel to Barcelona on holiday. They meet the suave artist Juan Antonio and fall in love.	score 3+	moviereview rates films from 1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable)
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Cast
Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina

Director
Woody Allen

Screenwriter
Woody Allen

Country
USA

Rating / Running Time
M / 97 minutes

Australian Release
December 2008

Official Site

As Woody Allen continues to discover a wide world beyond Manhattan, his backpacking has led to Barcelona. Vicky and Cristina are New Yorkers on holiday in the Catalan capital. Vicky is soon to be married on the wings of romance while Cristina is looking for Mr Right Now. An hilarious pick-up by the self-assured artist Juan Antonio rocks both their worlds: resistant Vicky is unexpectedly seduced by the suave Spaniard days before Cristina moves in with him. When Vicky’s fiancé arrives about the same time as Juan’s psychotic, potentially murderous ex-wife (a screen-stealing Penelope Cruz), the world moves again.

One of the more aggravating ticks of Allen films in which he doesn’t appear is the nervous disorder adopted by cast members who do a Woody. They take on the physical twitches, truncated sentences and snatchy dialogue that became his signature. I make the point by way of celebrating Bardem and Cruz who are delightfully free of this contrivance. Woody lingers in the supporting cast, Patricia Clarkson notably, but thanks to his Euro stars Allen arrives fresh and revitalised to explore love, romance and the gaping chasm in-between.

A contender at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Vicky Cristina Barcelona wowed audiences responding to a veteran filmmaker back in control of his career. Successfully blending the wit of yore with the transcontinental hip of now, he has crafted a film of crisp confidence that reverses a trend of diminishing returns. Everyone is on form, but the moment belongs to Bardem and Cruz whose spectacular energy raises hell across the summery beauty of Allen’s tableau. Sexy, smart and funny, Vicky Cristina Barcelona succeeds in feeding the heart and soul in equal measure. It is his best film in years.

// COLIN FRASER