Movie Review: Vicky Cristina Barcelona

I read an interview with Woody Allen once where he said that he wasn't a huge fan of the dvd format, and that he would much prefer people go see his movies in the theater like in the old days. Even so, I was holding off on seeing Vicky Cristina Barcelona until it hit dvd because there are a ton of other movies out there and seeing a Woody Allen movie on the big screen doesn't really add anything to the experience (sorry, Mr. Allen). However, I recently learned that on Tuesdays at one of the budget theaters here in town all movies are a dollar, and VCB was playing there this week. That seemed like a good deal to me, and so I went.

The movie stars Rebecca Hall as Vicky, and Scarlett Johansson as Cristina, who are best friends, but are totally different people. Vicky is the rational, responsible one who is engaged to a stereotypical well-off business person. Cristina counters that by being irrational, not really having any direction and preferring relationships with men that are doomed to failure. They end up in Barcelona for the summer so that Vicky can complete her thesis and so Cristina can have an adventure. Things seem to be going well for the friends until they meet Juan Antonio, played by Javier Bardem, who interjects himself into each of the girl's lives in a way that forces them to reassess their entire value core.

To me, Woody Allen is telling us the story of how the rational person and the irrational person deal with the exact same situation. It was fascinating to see how each girl works through Juan Antonio's deal, and the twists and turns that you know you will get in a Woody Allen movie, and in the end, we discover that rational or irrational, the same conclusion is made.

The cast does a fantastic job in taking us through this journey. Javier Bardem is suave and super cool without being over the top and is eccentric enough to be a believable painter and not just "that guy with the weird hair from No Country For Old Men". Penelope Cruz shows up about half way through the movie and is amazing as Maria Elena, who represents the girl in a guy's life he will always be passionate about, but can never get a relationship worked out with her. Woody Allen is not in the movie, but I noticed elements of his personality in both Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall, so even though Woody has a hands off approach when it comes to directing his actors, I could tell he still had a big influence on his leads.

That leads me to my one small gripe about the movie. Like many of his movies, Woody Allen uses voice over narration to help fill in the gaps, and while the narrator did a good enough job, it felt strange that Woody himself didn't do the narration. The movie feels so much like his older classic movies that I felt like he needed to be there somewhere, and the narrator would have been a good fit.

All in all, I really enjoyed this movie. I know that Woody Allen's movies aren't for everyone, but I would definitely give this one a try if you have even the slightest interest. If my review didn't do a good enough job of selling you on Vicky Cristina Barcelona, I will add this one last piece of information: Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz kiss. On the mouth. If that doesn't convince you, there is no hope.