For much of
the last two decades, Woody Allen's movie-a-year output has seemed more force
of habit than ongoing artistic pursuit, but there's a vibrant chemistry to Vicky
Cristina Barcelona—in
the writing, in the casting, in the great Catalan city itself—that
instantly sets it apart from his recent work. Though he's managed a few
pleasant diversions in that time, like Match Point or Sweet And Lowdown or Everyone Says I Love You, it's been easy to forget that
Allen was once a keen and perceptive chronicler of the human heart and its
mysterious, fickle desires. Shooting in Europe for the fourth time following Match
Point, Scoop, and Cassandra's
Dream, Allen seizes
on the chance to weigh American notions of love against the continent's more
libertine spirit. He comes away with a witty and ambiguous movie that's simultaneously
intoxicating and suffused with sadness and doubt.
Two
American friends vacationing in Barcelona for the summer, Scarlett Johansson
and Rebecca Hall have extremely different ideas of what they're looking for in
a relationship. Hall values stability and devotion, and is engaged to marry a
wealthy young man (Chris Messina) who will undoubtedly provide her with just
that. Johansson, on the other hand, is a romantic adventurer who craves the
sort of passion that tends to flame out as quickly as it ignites. When a
painter, played by Javier Bardem, makes the startling proposal that both women
join him on a trip to the town of Oviedo, his impulsiveness excites Johansson
and repels Hall, but they take him up on his offer anyway. The plot thickens
later when Bardem's tempestuous ex-wife Penélope Cruz enters the equation and
forces a complicated living situation with he and Johansson.
Though it's
tempting to dismiss Vicky Cristina Barcelona as an indulgent male fantasy, with
Bardem controlling the fates and libidos of three beautiful women, Allen clouds
the situation with a persistent romantic pessimism. (It also helps that Bardem
has enough charisma to convince anyone to sleep with him. With another actor in the
role—Allen, say—the movie would be a disaster.) As much as Allen
disdains the smothering confines of a stable, boring marriage, he also casts
skepticism on the volatile, bohemian threesome between Johansson, Bardem, and
Cruz. But through it all, Vicky Cristina Barcelona remains unaccountably romantic, a
confirmation that love, elusive and painful as it can be, is still worth
pursuing.