Woody Allen’s latest film Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a sex comedy in the vein of Arthur Schnitzler’s fin-de-siecle Viennese comedies set in one of the world’s most beautiful and exciting cities in my experience, Barcelona in northeastern Spain’s Catalonia region. http://www.vickycristina-movie.com/
Two college friends, Cristina the adventurous girl and Vicky the serious girl go to Barcelona to stay with a relative of Vicky’s while she completes a master’s thesis in Catalan identity. Vicky is played by Rebecca Hall and Cristina is played by Scarlett Johansson, who has now appeared in a number of Woody Allen’s movies.
They encounter a handsome and aggressive artist, Juan Antonio, played by Javier Bardem who suggests an excursion to Oviedo to sightsee, drink wine and make love. He has a complicated past with an ex-wife, Marielena, who stabbed him. She is played by the very sexy Penelope Cruz.
Various couplings and revelations ensue, including what must be the first PG-13 threesome.
There are some really unbelievable aspects of this movie. Vicky is supposed to be a graduate student doing a master’s thesis on Catalan identity but she doesn’t know Spanish. This is absurd. How could she do the research?
Cristina enters not just a threesome as a sexual adventure but a relationship with Juan Antonio and Marielena. This couldn’t work. She is always going to be an outsider as the two Spaniards have a history together that she can never fully share. Moreover, she is a foreigner who doesn’t know Spanish and has no reason to be there.
Vicky’s fiancee is not treated as an ogre as is so commonplace in such movies, however, she cuts him no slack. He suggests something spontaneous and romantic but she doesn’t even recognize it as such.
Like Match Point, this movie shows that not setting his movie in New York City has been good for Woody Allen’s creativity.
However, that said this is an interesting exploration of sex, love and relationships facing the college educated without clear goals in the modern era. Barcelona is one of the best characters Besides, it is fun and well-acted. Don’t miss it. -30-