Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Vicky Cristina
Since my two most fav. actresses, Penelope Cruz and Scarlet Johansson, were in this movie there was no way I was going to pass the movie up. I enjoyed it fully. The narration flowed smoothly throughout the film and the acting was good.

Who was this movie made for?
Beautiful scenery, attractive cast, boring story that left me wondering about who exactly the filmmakers thought their target audience would be. This movie is either a fantasy for people who think life is about pursuing unfocused liberal arts degrees and experiencing your latest artistic "passion" with limited observable effort (Vicky barely speaks basic Spanish but is pursuing a masters in "Catalan identity" and Cristina casually takes digital photos), which leaves plenty of time for casual lunches and detailed, self-absorbed discussions with equally self-absorbed pals about various sexual/romantic desires, or a thinly-veiled platform for the promotion of polyamory as the ideal relationship. Either way, I thought this movie was boring. On the whole, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" seemed to say to its audience, hey, look at all these silly women. Even the women who claim to be utterly practical have absolutely no way to support themselves, emotionally or financially, except by freeloading off of wealthy relatives or spouses or lovers (all men), who, in turn, hold themselves up as paragons of directness and conviction. But the male characters' directness is just as insufferable as the female characters' wishy-washy-ness (especially the scene where Vicky's husband cracks wise about a guy he knows who is a "close talker" but who "will make a great contact" -- yeah, we all know guys like that but I couldn't believe I was wasting my time watching a movie with one of them in it). It's like Woody Allen is simultaneously mocking everyone in this movie AND everyone watching the movie. Each relationship ultimately becomes about the women emasculating the men, either through cuckolding (Vicky, Vicky's relatives) or armed violence (Maria Elena). The saving grace of this movie is the decent acting. Penelope Cruz steals every scene she's in and has great chemistry with Javier Bardem (especially fighting with Javier Bardem -- looks authentic), but I think she won her Oscar more for her body of work (especially, Volver) than this particular performance. The other performances (Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall) are as worthy and adept as the script will allow. In spite of clocking in at around 1 hr 30 min, this movie still felt too long, and I wound up fast-forwarding through certain scenes due to the slow pace of the script and the vaguely yucky feeling about every character.

Women are God's gift for losers
Knowing that the movie is written by Woody Allen, there was a risk of wasting time watching it. I took the risk knowing that the nice scenery in Barcelona and Scarlett Johansson's performance would help redeem any plot defects, and I wasn't mistaken. The plot is simply every man's dream of having beautiful women chasing after him, which can be easily explained, knowing that Woody Allen is the writer. What is so wonderful though is that this story reveals how delusional we ladies are for falling for stupid bad boys, who have nothing to offer (not even wit or looks) and compromising our self respect and even our simplest rights, while turning down good guys. Johansson's performance and her emotional conclusion at the end makes this film worth watching in order to find out that even if we make mistakes, we don't have to suffer and keep repeating the same mistake and if we can't or don't know what we want, we can at least find out what we don't want.

Great movie, decent DVD.
This is a very engaging and entertaining film. I had a screener copy of the film and liked it so much, I decided to buy a copy. I've watched it several times, and while it has the feeling of other Woody Allen films, it still keeps things very fresh. While I do wish the DVD had some special features (commentary, behind the scenes content, deleted scenes--ANYTHING), I would still recommend it to anyone.

Lives ambivalent passions
Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a real pleasure to watch. Javier Bardem(Juan Antonio) portrays an artist with a passion for life and his charisma envelopes three very different women. Penelope Cruz is his volatile x-wife, while Rebecca Hall (Vicky) and Scarlett Johansson (Christina) portray two American friends visiting Barcelona who decide to accept Juan's invitation to spend the weekend in Oviedo. The movie's voice over comes across like a narrator telling us a fairy tale. This enhances the whimsical, and fantastic tone of the movie. In this fairy tale for, and about, adults, we learn about the passions, ambivalence, love interests, and illogical decisions that fly about creating ever more delirious scenes. Sit back and enjoy this film which is full of wit, warmth and life.