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Not too long ago, Javier Bardem won an Oscar for playing the bowl-cut-sporting, cold-blooded assassin in the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men. Now, the bowl cut is long, long gone—but his character in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona could be every bit as dangerous as Anton Chigurh.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona follows two American women on a life-changing summer in Spain. Though the two are best friends, they couldn’t be much more dissimilar. Grad student Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is sensible and mature, and she’s engaged to a nice, dependable man back home. Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) is flighty and creative and spontaneous. And while Vicky’s in Barcelona to study the culture, Cristina’s searching for inspiration and adventure.
One night, after attending an art show with their hosts, the women meet Juan Antonio (Bardem), a handsome artist who invites them away for a weekend of sightseeing, wine, and…other stuff. Vicky is appalled by the proposition, but Cristina can’t resist.
Unable to talk Cristina into rejecting the offer, Vicky joins the two on their weekend adventure, insisting that she’s just there to keep her friend from doing anything stupid. But before the weekend is over, both women find themselves falling for the charming and passionate Juan Antonio.
And, really, you can’t blame them. In fact, I think I can safely say that every woman in the audience will fall in love with Bardem’s Juan Antonio. And every man will fall in love with at least one of Juan Antonio’s three women: Johansson, Hall, or Penélope Cruz, who plays his unstable ex-wife, Maria Elena.
While you’re falling in love with Allen’s characters, though, you’ll also fall in love with Spain. Though Vicky Cristina was filmed in Allen’s stripped-down signature style, it doesn’t need anything fancy to make it an absolutely gorgeous movie. The film’s stunning locations only add to the seduction of it all. And by the time it’s over, you’ll be ready to book your flight.
I wish my review could end here—with passionate affairs, charming characters, and sensual Spanish settings. Unfortunately, though, there’s a but. Just when you find yourself caught up in the drama and the romance, you’ll be pulled out of the moment by the completely unromantic (and usually unnecessary) narration. While I can understand using narration to introduce the story, continuing the narration throughout a film is rarely necessary. More often than not, it’s intrusive and even irritating—and it distracts from the story instead of adding to it. And that’s definitely the case here. Narrator Christopher Evan Welch’s voice doesn’t fit—and viewers just don’t need to be told that Juan Antonio left the house in the middle of the night as they’re watching him leave the house in the middle of the night.
If you can overlook the incessant narration (which, believe me, isn’t an easy task), Vicky Cristina Barcelona is beautiful and seductive and brimming with tension. It’s chatty but charming. And it’s a steamy film that will have you holding your breath in anticipation (though it’s nowhere near as explicit as the rumors suggest). It’s just too bad that Allen didn’t have the same high school creative writing teacher that I did—because he definitely could use a lesson or two about the importance of showing instead of telling.
DVD Review:
This is where I usually talk about a movie’s DVD release—you know…its special features and things. But I’m not sure what to say about the Vicky Cristina Barcelona DVD release—because there isn’t a single extra feature. Believe me…I looked. I checked to see if there were hidden features—or maybe they’d accidentally gotten misplaced in some other menu (like the subtitles and captions). But there was nothing there, either.
Still, despite its stripped-down DVD release, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is worth checking out for its steamy romance and its passionate (and Oscar-nominated) performances. If only the DVD offered a narration-free version, I’d be in heaven.
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