'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' A Worthy Addition To The Allen Catalogue

In light of his recent commercial and critical failures, ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ has been received as a return to form for Woody Allen.  While some feel it does not match his early work, a solid script and a few terrific performances make it a fine film in its own right.
The movie centers around two friends – Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson)- and their three month trip they take to visit Barcelona.  The film’s Narrator (a miscast Christopher Evan Welch) describes these two as similar in all things but love, in which Vicky is safe and sensible, Cristina more adventurous and carefree.  Vicky decides to go to Spain to research Catalan culture, which she will write her graduate thesis on, and Cristina goes because she is lost in life, having just completed a short film which she hated.
The women spend their first few days in Barcelona exploring the city and all it has to offer.  Out at dinner one evening, the meet an artist, Juan Antonio (Bardem), who offers to take them out to Oviedo to explore the sites, have some good meals, and make love.  Cristina, who had been eyeing Juan Antonio all night, is eager to agree, while the engaged to be married Vicky is disgusted by such a brazen offer.  In the end she agrees to go, mainly to keep an eye on Cristina.  When Cristina falls ill, Vicky and Juan Antonio are left on their own.  After a long night of wine and seductive guitar playing, Vicky can no longer hold back her lust for Juan Antonio which as been growing throughout the trip.
When they return to Barcelona is it Cristina, not Vicky, who gets a call from Juan Antonio.  As the two grow closer, Vicky can do nothing but watch and agrees to marry her fiancé in a small Spanish wedding.  Eventually Cristina moves in with Juan Antonio, but the situation is complicated when his suicidal ex-wide Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz in her Academy Award winning role) comes to live with them.  The three eventually find a healthy balance, and a way to share their love.  While Cristina becomes embroiled in this three way love, her best friend can’t stop thinking about Juan Antonio.  The rest of the movie deals with Cristina trying to figure out if what she has now is true love, and Vicky wrestling with the decision of whether or not she should pursue her feelings for Juan Antonio.
Despite the fact that this story is about two women who take some chances on love, the movie feels decidedly safe.  The women do exactly what we expect them to when we expect them to, and therefore we never really worry that things will work out well for them in the end.  This is precisely what makes the movie’s conclusion so unsettling.  At the end of the movie we are left with the exact same two women that the narrator described in the opening lines – practical Vicky and free spirited Cristina.  These women have had experiences which have no doubt affected them, but in the end have not changed them.  Their inability to change who they are at their core makes the ending unnerving, as both women seem content, but not happy, with how they leave Spain.  Allen as writer makes a bold statement about humanity with this ending, shunning the traditional notion that the characters must change.  This leaves us with a sad, and perhaps in light of the rest of the movies tone, inappropriate ending, but at least it’s honest. 
Allen as the director makes the movie at times feel like a tourism ad for Spain, showcasing the lush scenery and beautiful architecture of Barcelona.  He keeps the film moving at a brisk pace, which makes the few scenes he draws out seem out of place.  While Allen’s script is clever and his directing sufficient, the movies draw is the actors, particularly Cruz.  Juan Antonio spends so much of the first half of the film talking about Maria Elena that we have high expectations for her by the time she shows up on screen, and Cruz nails it.  She embodies everything that Maria Elena is - sensitive but sadistic, dangerous and alluring.  Her character is big and over the top, yet Cruz herself never over acts, allowing herself to be comfortable in this character.  Hall gives a performance that is both heartbreaking and funny, while Bardem is perfectly cast as the charming Juan Antonio.  The chemistry between the two of them is exactly as it should be – palpable, but a bit odd.  The cast weak link really is Johansson.  In a movie in which even the secondary characters are clearly defined, Johansson gives an understated performance more suited for the mellow Tokyo of Lost In Translation than the adventurous Barcelona we see in this film. 
Despite its shortcomings, the move is breezy enough and has enough laughs thrown in to make it enjoyable.  The performance of Cruz, as well as the more underrated interplay between Hall and Bardem, makes ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ worth a watch and make it a nice addition to the Allen collection

Grade: B+