Patricia Clarkson Movie:

		List Price: $29.95		Label: The Weinstein Company Salesrank: 10199 Released: January 27, 2009
		Our Price: $14.98
		Used Price: $12.55
		MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), Oscar nominee Penelope Cruz (Volver) and Golden Globe nominee Scarlett Johansson (The Nanny Diaries) light up the stunning city of Barcelona in this sexy romantic comedy. Vicky and Cristina are two young Americans spending a summer in Spain, who meet a charming Casanova and his beautiful but volatile ex-wife. When they all become romantically entangled, the smoldering sparks begin to fly in hilarious fashion. Critics rave, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is one of Woody Allen s finest films, with bravura performances from its incredible cast (Jeffrey Lyons, Reel Talk/NBC).

Description of Vicky Cristina Barcelona [Blu-ray]:
It must be true that getting out of town can do a fellow a lot of good, because Vicky Cristina Barcelona is the best movie Woody Allen has made in years. Okay, you're right, 2006's Match Point already claimed that honor and, as Allen's first film made in England, established the virtues of getting away from overfamiliar territory (namely Manhattan). But the Woodman's first film made in Spain matches the ice-cold Match Point for crisp authority, and yields a good deal more sheer pleasure besides. Rebecca Hall (Vicky) and Scarlett Johansson (Cristina) play two young Americans, best friends, spending a summer in Catalonia. Vicky is going for a master's in "Catalan identity" (though her Spanish is shaky); Cristina is going along for, oh, just about anything. That soon includes celebrated abstract artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), who's anything but abstract in his forthright proposition that the two join him in his private plane, his travels, and his bed. That he has an insane ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz), who may or may not have tried to kill him is not really an issue until the wife reappears and ... well, consider the possibilities.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona isn't exactly a comedy, at least not in the manner of Allen's "early, funny ones," but it's informed by a rueful wit that finds its fullest expression in reflective voiceover commentary. Spoken by Christopher Evan Welch, but surely on behalf of the 73-year-old auteur, this element of the film is neither (as some have charged) patronizing nor uncinematic; rather, it's integral to the movie's participation in a venerable European literary tradition, the sentimental education. Instead of Bergman or Fellini, this time Allen is invoking the François Truffaut of Jules and Jim and Eric Rohmer in his many meditations on the game of love. The entire cast is terrific (both Hall and Johansson get to play "the Woody part" at different points), with Bardem and Cruz especially delightful as exemplars of Old Worldliness. Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe honors every drop of Catalonian sunlight and glint of Gaudí architecture. --Richard T. Jameson

Stills from Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Click for larger image)

Vicky Cristina Barcelona [Blu-ray] Reviews:
better than usual Woody Allen
2009-12-13 - Maybe this is why they still let Woody Allen make films after all those really terrible movies?
I hate the voice over narration in this film. A really good film maker lets the
action speak for itself?
The acting was OK and the Spanish setting was very good,
but the subject matter of American women tourists and a Spanish painter
just was kind of sexually trite as a subject?
It seems every one wants a slightly crazy Latin artist
as a lover: some sort of New York status symbol maybe?
Real painters and artists are sometimes more practical than businessmen
in their life choices ( mostly because they have to be).
Still the result is better than the last two Woody Allen films
I've seen, but still not up to his classic comedy style.

Amazing movie...I feel I visited Barcelona already!!
2009-11-22 - I am very happy I bought the movie. I liked Penelope's character. I really enjoyed the music, the beautiful spaces in Barcelona where the movie takes place.

(+) The genuine article
2009-11-16 - I bought VCB on DVD a couple of months ago, but delayed watching it as I wasn't sure what to make of the mixed reviews and also because I wasn't sure if my wife (who generally doesn't like Woody Allen films) would enjoy it. I needn't have worried because VCB is easily Woody Allen's best film comedy since Husbands and Wives. Everyone in our household enjoyed it immensely.

When I say 'comedy' I don't mean mildly amusing, I mean laugh-out-loud funny. Admittedly it does take a while to get into its stride, but the scenes between Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz in the second half of the film are absolutely hilarious in exactly the same way that the unfaithful husband and his embarrassing astrology-obsessed girlfriend were funny in Husbands and Wives. I think overall this is what impressed me most about the film: it marks the return of Woody Allen as the razor sharp observer of human frailty, something we have seen too little of in recent years. Watching the film also made me realise why Allen struggles to find a mass audience these days. Far more than other directors, he uses body language - or to be more precise the discrepancy between what a character is thinking (privately) and what he or she says - rather than the screenplay to create dramatic tension and drive the narrative forward. We have grown so used to directors who spoon feed us with special effects or obvious plot devices that we are fast losing the ability to appreciate those who use more subtle techniques.

The central theme of the film is the nature of erotic desire, its connection to art and, more specifically, the conflict between erotic desire as the longing for something wild and seemingly unattainable and erotic desire as the bond which nurtures loyalty and long term relationships. This is essentially the same theme that Allen explored so adroitly in Hannah and Her Sisters and Husbands and Wives. Vicky does genuinely love her fiance, but he can't satisfy her longing for aesthetic fulfilment; in the end, she has to make a choice and she chooses to remain unfulfilled. Cristina is more bohemian and experimental, but eventually realises she is in way over her head in a complex menage-a-trois that isn't working. Some critics complained that, at the end of the film, Vicky seems to have learned nothing from her experience, and that this is a weakness. I think this misses the point. Vicky has learnt that she is much more like Cristina than she initially imagined. Cristina has benefited from her experience but is (one suspects) sufficiently American in her values not to want to repeat it. Both girls are left with a longing for something that remains out of reach. The film appears to lack a clear resolution because that it what real life is like. If Woody Allen had been making a conventional romantic comedy, it would presumably have ended with a wedding scene in which the bride abandons her 'worthy but dull' husband-to-be for the man she really loves. We can all feel grateful that he chose instead to make a film about the restlessness of the human condition.

The key message for Woody Allen fans who haven't yet seen VCB is that the critics who praised this film on its release were right: it does represent a genuine return to form. It is not as strong or assured as his best films from the '70s and '80s, but it is recognisably by the same director and exhibits most of the qualities that made those films so special. For most of us, that will be more than enough.



Woody Allen's sex fantasies
2009-11-14 - Seems like the centerpiece of this movie is a certain sex fantasy (I won't offer a spoiler) involving Scarlett Johansson. Stilted dialog, wooden acting- I found the whole thing implausible, and the characters completely unsympathetic. I give the movie two stars only for the stunning scenes of Barcelona.

An experience to remember
2009-11-13 - I don't enjoy many Woody Allen movies, mainly because I find the man himself to be highly annoying as an actor. I didn't expect to like this movie much, but it engaged me and by the time it was over I realized that I had really enjoyed it. It stuck in my head for awhile as a bit of an experience. I didn't even mind the strange narration. It's hard to pin down exactly what I liked about it, but the acting was good, Penelope Cruz was fun to watch, the dialogue was interesting, and I just enjoyed absorbing the whole thing. Partly it was the (to me) somewhat exotic setting I suppose. I'd guess that this type of movie is not for everyone, but I found it very enjoyable.