I haven’t had the pleasure of watching a Woody Allen film til I got around to watching Vicky Cristina Barcelona. While it may not be the best or most well known piece of his work I wasn’t disappointed for I expected in a Woody Allen film. Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a fast paced “Romantic Dramedy” which manages to explore the depths of love, happiness, and sex.
The title is named after the two female protagonists, best friends Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina(Scarlett Johansson), who decided to spent the summer in Barcelona. The duo conflict in personalities, Vicky is rather prim and proper and Cristina is free spirited. The two also differ in what they want when it comes to love. Vicky is very traditional and is engaged which is on the other spectrum with Cristina, who doesn’t exactly know what she wants- only what she doesn’t. When the two meet painter and ladies man Juan Antonio Gonzalo (Javier Bardem), the two both question their own beliefs of love and desire as they fall for his charm. Penélope Cruz plays Maria Elena, Juan’s passionate and imbalanced ex-wife who shares Juan’s swinging values yet has still possess a deep love for him.
Out of the all the film’s I’ve watched so far this one has brought out the most thoughts that would normally come out when analyzing a play or a book for a high school English class (which I was never good at.) Take the city of Barcelona, which could be considered a character alongside the cast. Beautiful buildings, gardens, and parks provide a for a beautiful and romantic backdrop to the story. Each of the characters becomes involved with the setting in the form of differing art forms: Juan and Maria Elena paint, Cristina takes photographs, and Vicky analyzes the architecture and buildings.
The narrated scenes of the film allow for compact, powerful scenes that take us from one plot point to the other, there is very little that is shown in the movie that isn’t significant to moving the story along. Allen makes great use of his time in the 96 minute film.
While the performances in the piece were good, not great, the true scene stealer of the piece has to be Cruz as Maria Elena. I was watching the film paying special attention to her Academy Award nominated performance. While she shows up only halfway into the film she quickly shows us a woman who is still incomplete after finding her true love. The lack of harmony in her life causes her unbridled passion to spill over into angry tantrums. Cristina later plays the missing link that allows the three to peacefully co-exist.
The love triangle of Cristina, Juan, and Maria Elena was very reminiscent of The Dreamers. The polyamorous relationship that develops results a steamy but brief scene that include some girl-on-girl action between Cruz and Johansson. Don’t get too excited guys, I found it rather tastefully done and rather harmless compared to what you’d see in a volume of Girls Gone Wild.
Woody Allen manages to impress me with Vicky Cristina Barcelona, I thought the story was really interesting and I hope check out more of his work in the future.
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