Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Comedy

Plot:
Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) visit Barcelona for the summer, staying with Vicky's distant relative Judy (Patricia Clarkson) and her husband, Mark Nash (Kevin Dunn). A narrator (voice of Christopher Evan Welch), present throughout the film, describes the two friends: Vicky is practical and traditional in her approach to love and commitment, and is engaged to the reliable but unromantic Doug (Chris Messina). She is in Barcelona getting her masters in "Catalan identity". Cristina, on the other hand, is a nonconformist, spontaneous but unsure of what she wants from life or love.

They Say:
Vicky Cristina Barcelona garnered the best reviews Allen had received since his Oscar-nominated 2005 film Match Point. At the time of release it had an 80 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes Scott Tobias wrote in the Onion AV Club that it was "a witty and ambiguous movie that's simultaneously intoxicating and suffused with sadness and doubt". Richard Roeper suggested that Cruz should receive an Academy Award nomination for her role. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle praised the film as "the work of a confident and mature artist" (Allen). Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote "Although Vicky Cristina trips along winningly, carried by the beauty of its locations and stars - and all the gauzy romanticism those enchanted places and people imply - it reverberates with implacable melancholy, a sense of loss." Richard Corliss ended his review of the film with "The movie has neither the sardonic heft of Max Ophüls's La Ronde nor the emotional precision of Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night, two films that also dance the change-partners gavotte. But Vicky Cristina Barcelona is so engaging so much of the time that it feels like a modest rejuvenation: evidence that a summer in Spain can do wonders for a writer-director who may not have outlived his prime."

Not all the reviews were positive. James Berardinelli, writing for ReelViews said "[Allen] has slipped back into the sinkhole of mediocrity", Kenneth Turan wrote "that despite promising elements, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is too intent on being taken seriously to be more than mildly diverting"; he says the film's narration becomes tedious, "Bardem's performance is so good it tends to mask how lacking much of what surrounds it is", and the film overall is "indifferently directed."

Ian Freer of Empire gave the film 4/5, and wrote "within Allen's recent output, Vicky Cristina is a highlight. See it for beautiful locales, an ambivalent look at human relationships and a clutch of great performances, especially from Cruz."

I Say:
VCB is a very light-hearted movie. Although categorized as comedy, it's not really that hardcore funny: it's just it's not very dark and sad and gloomy. I liked the narration style. It didn't bore me in the least. The movie follows my so-called narrative style. I also liked how they title the movie because the premise goes like this: VICKY and CRISTINA went to BARCELONA.

Among the roster of actors, Penelope Cruz is the best. It's as if I already fell in love with her. But her acting here is very exceptional.

Here in VCB, I learned a lot of new things about love and seduction. Of course I won't spill it to you.