Film Review: Vicky Christina Barcelona (Woody Allen, 2008)

via Atlas Film
By Daniel Greenwood

Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson are Vicky and Christina, two close friends visiting Barcelona - Vicky is here to research for a degree in Catalan studies, Christina simply to tag along. Javier Bardem plays Juan Antonio, a Spanish painter who approaches the two friends in a restaurant and offers to fly them to Oviedo for the weekend. Vicky scoffs at the proposal but this kind of thing is just what Christina's looking for - a hunky painter man to show her something new, loins, even. Vicky is cynical of Juan Antonio, and unimpressed by his forwardness she dresses him down often. Christina suffers food poisoning, leaving Juan Antonio to show Vicky the sights of Oviedo. It's here that the two form a bond and Juan Antonio works his magic. But Vicky is engaged to be married, and her boyfriend Doug (Chris Messina) is never far away, calling Vicky's cell phone regularly. It's only after Vicky's really got to know Juan Antonio that she feels uncomfortable speaking to her fiancée. She pulls herself away from the artist, whilst he and Christina forge a sexual bond.

The dilemma at the heart of Vicky Christina Barcelona is whether to settle for a partner or to keep searching. Both Vicky and Christina struggle with this issue: Vicky is initially sure of her love for Doug, but Juan Antonio undresses its false premise; Christina falls for Juan Antonio, it was only the food poisoning that stopped them hooking-up, but in the end she's not comfortable with the triangle befitting herself, Juan Antonio and the brilliant Penelope Cruz as Maria Elena. Judging by the final shot and voice-over it seems that the closest thing these young women have to happiness is their friendship. Vicky is confident that wedlock is for her, but the allure of the world draws her away, filling her with desire. The Spanish guitar music is perhaps the most potent symbol of her longing for 'something else', this rapturous music entrances Vicky.

Allen's film is full of ideas. It has universal appeal and never sates itself with an answer to any of the questions arising from its characters. Each of these characters is belittled and wretched at some point, the narrative moves naturally, seamlessly from scene to scene. Scoop (2006) flailed because it was following a limp plot device - a serial killer - and I never got to (nor wanted to) peer inside the people. But here Scarlett Johansson typifies Allen's artless individual, someone who loves art (in this case photography, architecture) but cannot express themselves creatively. In 1978, Allen wrote and directed Interiors, a film about the disintegration of an unhappy family. Joey (Mary Beth Hurt) is Interior's 'artless' person, and she says it herself: how do people with all these emotions but no talent ever express themselves satisfactorily? Christina is an update on that problem because she manages to be artistic with help from Maria Elena and Juan Antonio. She learns to let things flow over her, to lose her preconceptions (what Vicky desperately struggles to do herself) and let her art come naturally. Perhaps for Allen talent doesn't exist, it's just confidence, or knack - something gained rather than God-given.

Vicky Christina Barcelona has a lot of depth to it. It's a comedy tinged with the painful ideas that swirl beneath its surface. It's classic Allen in that respect, though not funny like Annie Hall was, nor with the tragedy of Interiors (1978.) or Crimes and Misdemeanours (1989). In Rebecca Hall, Allen has an assured lead who commands the film alongside Penelope Cruz's harrowing turn and Javier Bardem as the believable sap.