**** Stars
The joy that comes out of watching Vicky Christina Barcelona is the perfect kind. Woody Allen, the fantastic writer he is, seduces us with wine, sex, poetry, music, and characters that have desires of having something they’ve never experienced before. Or better put, something they’ve never thought of having before.
Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Christina (Scarlett Johansson) are best friends who see eye-to-eye on pretty much everything, except one thing: love. Vicky is turned on by the commitment a man will give to her, where Christina is looking for adventure and passion. Enter the luscious and seductive Javier Bardem (a million miles away from his evil turn in No Country for Old Men) who plays Juan Antonio, a rich and cultured artist who asks the women to join him for a weekend in Oviedo. Obviously, Christina is sold. Vicky is not. But Christina persuades her to come. They spend time drinking wine and talking adult as things unfold in ways one might not expect. Both actually fall for Juan, but Vicky ends up sleeping with him first. Not only that, Vicky has fallen in love with him. She eventually stays committed to her man that’s waiting for her back in the states, while Christina and Juan end up lovers. When they move in together, things are feeling smooth. But, enter his ex-wife (played by the scene-stealing, show-stopping Penelope Cruz) who is suicidal and eventually has to move in with Christina and Juan. The three eventually turn into lovers.
Sounds like a soap opera huh? But it’s not. It’s vintage Woody Allen. Vicky Christina Barcelona is a turn on for the young and the restless who want to venture away from pop culture and into a delicious piece of cinema that is one of Allen’s freshest and most swiftest of films.
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