Journalism 3 Movie Review

Next up is my review for Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Woody Allen is damn lucky he was able to cast so many hot people. Here we go:

Vicky Cristina Barcelona: three proper nouns that, without any given context, are tough to string together. In this case, Woody Allen provides the backdrop of two young adults, Vicky and Cristina, and their eventful trip to the beautiful Barcelona, Spain. The movie’s premise is one that showed promise, but ultimately, the execution in dialogue and mediocre acting performances bring down Vicky Cristina Barcelona’s identity as a romantic blockbuster that explores ideas like the uncertainty of love and polygamy’s role in a world so focused on single-spouse relationships.

Deciding to visit Barcelona for the summer, Vicky (played by Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (played by Scarlett Johansson) take notice of an eccentric painter at a local art gallery opening. The painter, known as Juan Antonio (played by Javier Bardem), goes on to force the two girls to question their ideas of love throughout their multiple encounters. Vicky, a prim-and-proper girl who was recently engaged, especially deals with her own inner struggle as she must call into question if what she had wanted in the past was what she had wanted at that present moment. The situation gets even more complicated when Maria Elena (played by Penelope Cruz), Juan Antonio’s ex-wife, makes a return.

I wasn’t really sure how to feel about this movie when I first saw it. As I went through it from beginning to end, I could see many things wrong with the movie and, at the same time, many things right. I suppose that’s why I consider Vicky Cristina Barcelona to be a fairly average movie in that its positive aspects strike an almost equal balance with its negative aspects. For starters, let’s take a look at the choice of actors and actresses. On the plus side, Penelope Cruz’s performance as Maria Elena is absolutely stunning. The wide range of emotions she was able to naturally and masterfully display throughout the film cemented her position as a perfect fit for the role. Additionally, Javier Bardem’s performance as Juan Antonio was above average. He was handsome, charming, and his line delivery felt perfectly natural. Truly, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem were the stars of this show, so much so that they both nabbed quite a few nominations for their performances, with Cruz winning two or three.
Scarlett Johansson’s performance was neither grand nor disappointing – she played her role well and, if I may add, served to be great eye candy. Actually, let’s be honest here: pretty much everyone in this movie is beautiful… even Javier Bardem. That’s right, I said it. But much in the same way that Cruz and Bardem’s performances uplift the movie’s status, Rebecca Hall’s performance brings it down. At least in the first half of the movie or so, Hall’s line delivery is almost painful. Each line felt so unnatural, as if it was just being read plainly off the script. Perhaps it was Allen’s intention to make Vicky’s character this one-dimensional, uptight girl who spoke in an almost monotonous voice, we may never know. But one thing remains: the role of Vicky could have definitely been made better.

It wouldn’t be nice to put all the blame on Hall, though. While her line delivery did feel unnatural and stale, I think part of that could be attributed to the dialogue itself. At times, I couldn’t help but ask myself “is this how real people are supposed to talk?” While the story itself was enchanting and the ideas conveyed within the movie were appropriate for our current society’s beliefs on love, the dialogue itself is another down point for the movie.

One last thing that must be mentioned is the music. Most of the movie’s music is a beautiful blend of percussion instruments and acoustic guitars with a healthy dose of Latin flavor, the movie’s main theme is unbearable solely due to the main vocals. I don’t know why, but I found the vocals to be absolutely annoying, and I dreaded each subsequent time the theme played more than the last.

Despite its glaring problems, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is an enchanting tale of love that will at least hold your attention for the entire hour and a half. When its positive points are placed side by side with its negative points, it is apparent that the movie just barely hovers above the average line.

Score: 6/10