Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
Directed by Woody Allen
Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.
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48 films that influenced Vicky Cristina Barcelona
What critics say influenced Vicky Cristina Barcelona
In lieu of tackling a straightforward comedy or drama this time, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" takes inspiration from the works of Eric Rohmer (1983's " Pauline at the Beach ") in its naturalistic slice-of-life look at two young women still trying to decide what they want to make of their futures.
Compare this performance with her roles in "Elegy" and "Volver ," for example, and you see that Cruz has a much wider range than her eye-candy reputation suggests.
Much of what's best here is brought by the actors, especially sloe-eyed Bardem and the excitingly maniacal Cruz, who's as good as she was in "Volver."
After struggling with English-language crap like Sahara, Cruz has quietly given three stunning performances in Volver (which she should have won the Oscar for), a movie that opens next week that I’m still technically embargo-ed on, and this incredible role.
Cruz has displayed her versatility before -- especially in Volver - and here her fiery Spanish insensibility works perfectly as the catalyst.
Writer/director Woody Allen ("Match Point," "Cassandra's Dream") has assembled one of his most unusual casts for his latest, European set film and his combination of recent favorite (Scarlett Johansson, "Scoop," "The Black Dahlia"), new discovery (Rebecca Hall, "Starter for 10," "The Prestige") and local blood (Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men" and (Penélope Cruz, "Volver") sizzles and sparks.
Their early encounters ought to suggest so; she and Juan Carlos possess all the spit and vigor of some of the more legendary movie relationships (some of the dialogue mirrors the tone of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”), and Maria is hardly quiet about her initial disdain for this strange new woman in her former husband’s life.
Writer/director Woody Allen ("Match Point," "Cassandra's Dream") has assembled one of his most unusual casts for his latest, European set film and his combination of recent favorite (Scarlett Johansson, "Scoop," "The Black Dahlia"), new discovery (Rebecca Hall, "Starter for 10," "The Prestige") and local blood (Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men" and (Penélope Cruz, "Volver") sizzles and sparks.
Javier Bardem plays Juan Antonio, and anyone who has yet to forget his grim exploits in "No Country for Old Men" might feel inclined to tell these two to run for their lives.
As Juan Antonio, Javier Bardem (2007's " No Country for Old Men ") is appropriately sensual, but also likable, which is important in plausibly setting up why Vicky and Cristina are so drawn to him.
Looking every inch the smoldering Latin lover, he is having the time of his life inhabiting a Valentino stereotype at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from his psychotic killer in "No Country for Old Men."
Bardem’s natural-born lover—a painter, by trade—is as devastating as his natural-born killer in “No Country for Old Men.” He’s almost criminally attractive—soft-spoken and erudite, decent in his way but relentless, a Don Juan brought back to life as an English-speaking charmer.
While at times you’ll easily predict when sex is on deck, Allen uses “No Country for Old Men” star Javier Bardem literally as his blunt instrument.
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Also, many reviewers who have carped about the narration of Christopher Evan Welch in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, do not realize that Allen is using the late Francois Truffaut's Jules and Jim (1962) as a major source.
For that matter, who but Allen would manage to make a film in Barcelona where the protagonists end up at a screening of Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943) at the local repertory cinema?
The side trip and its emotional aftermath are not unlike Deborah Kerr's change of heart toward Cary Grant's playboy in "An Affair to Remember" after a visit to his grandmother.
Cruz and Bardem, who have a history together - the erotically charged 1992 Spanish import, Jamón, Jamón, and Pedro Almodovar's 1997 gem, Live Flesh - turn what could have been a cartoon rendering of hot-blooded Latin passion into a seriously unpredictable relationship.
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Still, he was never quite as appealing back then as when he worked in purely Woody Allen territory -- it's hard to imagine movies like Zelig, Hannah and her Sisters, and Radio Days springing from anyone else's brain.
With able support from Patricia Clarkson, as a family friend of Vicky's, living in Spain and living in pain over her own unhappy marriage, Vicky Cristina Barcelona covers familiar Allen territory: Like Husbands and Wives, Hannah and Her Sisters, Annie Hall, Crimes and Misdemeanors, and the list can go on and on, Allen's latest offers an exploration of romantic longing, of men and women falling in and out of love, behaving foolishly, and badly.
The characters move as if on a carousel, making the film an exploration of romantic complications on the level of "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986) and "Husbands and Wives" (1992).
This isn’t the specialized sadness of an intricately plotted film like Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).
It's literally difficult to believe that the person who made this picturesque, clueless, oddly misanthropic picture also made "Annie Hall" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors."