Allen’s Vicky Cristina Simply Bellissimo
As a film critic, there are times when I realize that those in my profession can appear just a tiny bit spoiled. We get to see everything for free, after all, many times weeks before the rest of the viewing public, our screenings (usually) held in nearly empty theaters without the hullabaloo of any sort of distractions.
Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johansson in The Weinstein Company's Vicky Cristina Barcelona
So I actually think it’s a good thing that I missed the press screening for Woody Allen’s latest effort Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Based on all the good notices and acclaim out of Cannes I knew this was a film I needed to see, and for the first time in months I decided to head to a local downtown Seattle multiplex and buy an $8.25 matinee ticket along with everyone else. Now it was my pocketbook on the line, and whether or not I enjoyed the motion picture was undeniably going to be partially based on whether or not I got my monies worth.
Happy to say, Allen’s new comedy is one of his best in years, even better than his much lauded (and Oscar-nominated) 2005 effort Match Point. I was, by and large, absolutely delighted by Vicky Cristina Barcelona, laughing out loud a good half dozen times. Towards the end, I even shed a tear or two, and by the time it was over (and even thought the final scene left me cold) I couldn’t help but admit I walked out of the theater entirely satisfied.
Soon to be married Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and her best friend Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) are spending the summer in Barcelona staying with Judy (Patricia Clarkson), a family friend of the former living in the country with her international businessman husband Mark (Kevin Dunn). While there, they meet dashingly handsome artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) who impulsively invites the pair on a weekend getaway promising exquisite architecture, fantastic food and maybe the erotic promise of something more.
While Vicky isn’t so sure about this, Cristina is all for it dragging her friend along for the ride. The weekend ends up leading to affairs and relationships surprsing both women, events changing how they will look at their respective lives for the duration of their vacation. But when Vicky’s fiancé Doug (Chris Messina) and Juan Antonio’s fiery ex-wife Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz) enter the picture things change again, and by the time the trip is over neither young woman is ever going to be the same.
The movie is a trifle, yes, but it is a fantastically entertaining trifle that made me smile, laugh, cry and at times even coo like a teenage schoolgirl. Allen stages some of his best, most intoxicatingly observant and poignant observational moments in over a decade, at least since Husbands and Wives. While this one isn’t quite the classic that one has proven to be, it’s still monstrously enjoyable, a sexually exhilarating comedic melodrama that’s as lived-in and as worldly as anything the famous writer-director has arguably ever attempted.
Not that I can admit to being undivided in my love. For one thing, Christopher Evan Welch’s omnipresent monotone narrative drove me a little nuts almost immediately, Allen insisting on having him spell every little thing out like he’s reading off a teleprompter and reciting from some incredibly dry Spanish travelogue. The opening is especially weak, and for a good ten minutes I was squirming in my seat in obvious discomfort.
But the biggest problem is the very last scene of the movie. I didn’t like it, I can’t put in any more simply than that, and watching our heroines exit the airport I couldn’t help but wish they were doing something – anything – else than what was being described. At this point I felt like they deserved more, merited movement in a different direction than the one they were being depressingly led towards.
Of course, I understand why Allen goes where he does with all of this. On an everyday real-world level this climax makes the most sense and it is the one probably truest to his characters. I just fell in such love with these girls, especially the fantastically talented Hall (whose Oscar-worthy performance will undoubtedly be long forgotten by the time nominations are even considered), I wanted the fantasy for them, desired that they go in the directions I dreamt for them and not the ones most of us, probably myself included, would realistically have chosen if given the same opportunities.
Yet, even with these missteps hovering over the picture, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is about as close to pure joy as I’ve discovered sitting inside a movie theater this year. Once the pair takes up residence in Judy’s home and their adventures begin, I almost couldn’t get enough of them. I was eager to see where they would go, what they would do, who they would meet and what they’d decide to do with all the emotional experience they’ve acquired.
Best of all is the dynamic duo of Bardem and Cruz. Both are, in a word, spectacular. The repartee between them is energizing and dynamic, the pair switching from English to Spanish to English and back again, sometimes in mid-sentence, with absolutely mesmerizing precision. Their relationship feels so authentic, so undeniably genuine and real you could see the years of pain, suffering, understanding and love in a single sideways glance hovering in the air like the smoke twirling from the ends of their cigarettes.
It is almost as if working with the pair has energized the filmmaker in a way he hasn’t been in ages. He lets them give and take and tug and pull almost as if they were the ones directing the piece and he was just their lucky enough to photograph their discussions. When Cruz and Bardem get rolling it is impossible to take your eyes off of either of them, and as good as both of the leads are I still couldn’t help but somewhat miss this pair of emotionally complicated Spanish conquistadors each time they disappeared.
I doubt Allen will ever rise once again to the heights of Manhattan, Annie Hall, Crimes and Misdemeanors or Hannah and Her Sisters, but as far as the man’s later period is concerned this one must be considered one of his best. Leaving New York has transformed him in ways he probably doesn’t even quite understand, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, flaws and all, more than worth the money required to buy a ticket. In other words, it’s bellissimo, and I can’t think of anything better to say than that.
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
Additional Links:
- Vicky Cristina Barcelona Theatrical Trailer
