VICKY
CRISTINA BARCELONA
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson
Review by Deke Richards
PLOT: A romantic
comedy about two young female American tourists visiting
Barcelona
, who are drawn into a series of unconventional romantic entanglements with a
local charismatic painter.
CRITIQUE: Alright. So I get off the plane, straight from
Montreal
and before I could say Vive la
France
, The Arrow sends my jet-lagged self out to see a film for review. It happens to
be a Woody Allen film. Hey, not bad for my first assignment. It had been a while
since I had seen one of his flicks.
After all I was always a fan of the “Allen Man” (as I
call him), specially his early work like “Bananas” (You got to love
Stallone’s cameo in it), “Crime and Misdemeanors” and even
“Deconstructing Harry.” And taking into account VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA’s
subject matter (two shameless sex driven hot chicks played by Scarlett Johansson
and Penelope Cruz), I expected great things from this one.
Like all Woody Allen movies, his characters were in the
forefront here. They were well developed, always compelling and highly amusing.
That resulted in me getting some good laughs at the expense of the
circumstantial humor at hand, mostly centered around the great Javier Bardem and
the cute Penelope Cruz. Cruz actually deserves my added kudos for this role! She
literally stole the show as the insane jealous ex-wife. I loved the "her
crashing Johansson’s and Bardem’s soiree" scene. Very funny!
The solid use of the Barcelona
locations also contributed to my enjoyment of the film. Often enough I felt
like I was gawking at a moving postcard. And last but certainly not least, I
really appreciated the hot little lesbian kissing scene between Scarlett
Johansson and Cruz. I’m sure that bit is what got the movie green lit to
begin with. If not well… I certainly would of green lit it just for
that!! But even with all those fine qualities on display, I didn’t get much else
out of the picture. The storyline around the layered characters was somewhat
thin and mundane and girl on girl fun aside, nothing really stood out to
knock me out. A light version of "Annie Hall" is the best way I could
describe this one – Woody Allen’s 1977 Oscar winning classic, that also
examined the ups and downs of relationships.
Basically when the film was over and the credits started
rolling, I said to myself: "That’s it?". The stakes were just too low
even, for a light hearted story like this one. In my opinion this feature was
missing a third act and by result it was lacking. Then again, Woody Allen wrote
a play called “GOD” written in two acts which kind of explains this
structure to a certain degree. Doesn’t mean I have to like it. All in all, if you like a good character driven story, with
some visually soothing "National Geographic" like shots, sumptuous
cinematography and a steamy lesbian scene, well this one might be for you. But
if you like ample depth in your storylines from the “Allen Man,” go old
school and see “Annie Hall” again (or “Bananas”)!
Rating: 6/10