There was a moment about halfway into Vicky Cristina Barcelona when I realized that I really liked this film. The only problem is that I can't put my finger on the moment, because VCB is simply a progressive string of countryside bike rides, hot sex scenes, occasionally humorous voiceovers, and endless Woody Allenisms. There are no real impactful scenes, and, while it is certainly a film that is much greater than the sum of its parts, it is not especially memorable, despite being very good.
Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) are 20-somethings who travel to Spain and meet Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) who is supposed to be a tragic European artist (except he gets to fuck any woman he glances at, so it's hard to sympathize), and they engage in a sort of bastardized love triangle that has all the trappings of something about to go terribly awry, but then it doesn't, because Vicky is engaged and she calls her angle of the triumvirate off, so then Cristina and Juan Antonio scamper off into rural Spain and live an idyllic lifestyle, until Juan Antonio's psycho-ex (Penelope Cruz) comes back and things get intolerably spicy. It is a very subtly amusing movie, rife with sexual tension, and ultimately very compelling. Key points:
-Woody Allen, at age 104, is still a perv. Hall, Cruz, and Johansson all look great, and, although no breasts are shown, the director's intentions could not be more clear.
-The film looks beautiful. Very real-looking, lots of green and yellow shades, many great shots of the aforementioned Spanish countryside.
-The writing is classic Woody Allen; as such, it's very funny. Nothing is contrived, even though it would be an easy plot to write bullshit lines for. In the film, Bardem has a knack of tripping over his English, and it seems totally natural.
-It is a better film than Bangkok Dangerous.
-If you stood 5 feet in front of Penelope Cruz, and she were armed with a handgun, I'd short "You Don't Survive This Encounter" at 3 on InTrade.
-The film's ending just kinda... ends. It's not really disappointing, since the rest of VCB is so mellow and cool that I wouldn't have expected anything else. But it leaves me wondering if there's really anything meaningful to take away.
-VCB is like one long montage, and as such, the soundtrack is pretty important. And it totally delivers. It's one big mood piece. Long walks, red wine, cobbled streets, a beautiful villa, mysterious paintings, lesbian sex in a dark room between Johansson and Cruz... it's a big stew. And it's accompanied by an omnipresent Spanish guitar, strumming away slowly when the atmosphere dictates it and ratcheting up the pace when things get increasingly heated. While I liked the acting a lot (it gave me a whole new appreciation for Anton Chigurh), the reason this movie is so cool is how it flows in and out of each relationship in a very subdued and carefree way.
