Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson, Kevin Dunn) — Woody Allen continues his world tour with a truly beautiful portrait featuring the sites and scenes of Barcelona. As with all movies written and directed by The Woodman, the story is unique and told expertly and in that unique writing style of Allen. Two great friends, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), travel to Spain for the summer. Vicky is there to research her thesis while Cristina is there to have fun. They stay with friends of Vicky’s parents (character actors Patricia Clarkson and Kevin Dunn) who appear to have the perfect life but may not. Vicky is engaged and committed while Cristina is the free spirit with, shall we say, a different set of moral absolutes. They meet a handsome painter, Juan Antonio, played by Academy Award winner Javier Bardem, who makes the girls an outrageous proposition — to go with him for a weekend of sightseeing and sex. Cristina, already attracted to the man, is quick to say yes. Vicky is totally appalled but goes along to protect her friend. You can guess what happens next, but you can’t guess the twists and turns. It turns out that Juan Antonio is still in love with his passionate and unstable ex-wife (played by Penelope Cruz), who tried to kill him and, later, herself. When Cristina and he move in together, the ex-wife shows up. The triangle that emerges is sexy, multi-layered and surprisingly intriguing. Meanwhile, Vicky and her fiancé marry in Barcelona but the weekend with Juan Antonio and Cristina haunts her.
There has been an adventurous turn to Allen’s work in the past few years. He has done two fine mystery London films in Match Point and Scoop in London; now, he explores Barcelona. He did all three with the still young, maturing, sometimes talented and almost sexy Johansson, who seems to have taken over the Diane Keaton role in his life. In many ways, I like this Woody Allen even more than before — and I have always been a fan. He seems to have added greater depth to his dialogue, even as he ensures that at last one character — in this case Vicky — really is written in his own voice. He did the same with Jason Biggs in Anything Else. Now that he is finding it harder to cast himself, as he did in Scoop, he appears to be focusing more on plot than characters while still maintaining an exceptional attention to cinematography and pacing. This may be his best movie in the past few years, but that depends on which Woody you like best. Personally, I enjoy all of the facets of Woody Allen even if audiences have never appreciated his genius. Make it a point to see the story of Vicky and Cristina’s summer in Barcelona in the aptly named Vicky Cristina Barcelona.