Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
Country: SP/US
Technical: col 96m
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson
Synopsis:
Two American girls in Barcelona meet a charming painter with a borderline psychotic ex-wife.
Review:
As inconsequential as the plot thumbnail suggests, this vaunted 'return to form' for the director has luminescent cinematography and a touching Rebecca Hall performance but otherwise skates around a few Allenesque stereotypes such as unstable Latinos and sudden indispositions while propounding a tired dichotomy embodied in the central pairing: whether to search constantly for the perfect mate or settle with 'safe'. In the end it fudges the issue by appearing to be dissatisfied with both life paths: Johansson moves on from painter for no really good reason; meanwhile Hall stays with boring, philistine moneybags because of Cruz's blundering into a scene wielding a firearm with 'deus' written all over it. Entertaining, eye-catching, despite its disengaged narration (why not Woody?), but basically as fluffy as its heroines' navels.
Country: SP/US
Technical: col 96m
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson
Synopsis:
Two American girls in Barcelona meet a charming painter with a borderline psychotic ex-wife.
Review:
As inconsequential as the plot thumbnail suggests, this vaunted 'return to form' for the director has luminescent cinematography and a touching Rebecca Hall performance but otherwise skates around a few Allenesque stereotypes such as unstable Latinos and sudden indispositions while propounding a tired dichotomy embodied in the central pairing: whether to search constantly for the perfect mate or settle with 'safe'. In the end it fudges the issue by appearing to be dissatisfied with both life paths: Johansson moves on from painter for no really good reason; meanwhile Hall stays with boring, philistine moneybags because of Cruz's blundering into a scene wielding a firearm with 'deus' written all over it. Entertaining, eye-catching, despite its disengaged narration (why not Woody?), but basically as fluffy as its heroines' navels.
Country: SP/US
Technical: col 96m
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson
Synopsis:
Two American girls in Barcelona meet a charming painter with a borderline psychotic ex-wife.
Review:
As inconsequential as the plot thumbnail suggests, this vaunted 'return to form' for the director has luminescent cinematography and a touching Rebecca Hall performance but otherwise skates around a few Allenesque stereotypes such as unstable Latinos and sudden indispositions while propounding a tired dichotomy embodied in the central pairing: whether to search constantly for the perfect mate or settle with 'safe'. In the end it fudges the issue by appearing to be dissatisfied with both life paths: Johansson moves on from painter for no really good reason; meanwhile Hall stays with boring, philistine moneybags because of Cruz's blundering into a scene wielding a firearm with 'deus' written all over it. Entertaining, eye-catching, despite its disengaged narration (why not Woody?), but basically as fluffy as its heroines' navels.