#2

Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, like many Woody Allen films before it, is all about relationships between men and women. Two female friends are vacationing in Spain. A charming, handsome local painter propositions them, proclaiming equal satisfaction with any sensual equation they’re interested in: a threesome, a couple of twosomes, whatever. One is intrigued, one is repulsed, and so it begins. By the time the painter’s fiery ex-wife reenters the scene, Allen has positioned his film to explore as many different approaches to romance and relationships as a summer in Barcelona has romantic nights. Allen, forever the hopeless cynic, pits all these theories against each other to draw the conclusion that none of them makes any sense whatsoever. Monogamy is foolhardy, quixotic. Promiscuity is dangerous, self-destructive, completely contrary to the human instinct towards possessing that which we cherish. Every variation in between is similarly doomed. All of this is plumbed with a novelists’ depth, each character filled out with insightful layers, even if, as is the case with Scarlett Johansson’s role, it’s layer upon layer of impulsive shallowness. Penelope Cruz’s fierce work as the jealous, impassioned former wife has been duly lauded, but just as rewarding the grounding work of Javier Bardem as the suave paramour and Rebecca Hall as the more hesitant of the traveling duo who finds herself, against every intellectual instinct, being drawn into this amorous tangle. Hall, in particular, finds nuance in the role that most invites a safe retreat into the familiar Allen cadences aped by so many actors who’ve stood on the other side of the camera from him. There is neurosis there, but Hall taps equally into shaky vulnerabilities and a strained, challenged intelligence that enhances the character. Through her, we see this world Allen has constructed, this story he has crafted a little more clearly. We see its complications and become full aware of the futility of seeking simple answers. In laying out that ambiguity with wisdom and wit, Allen has added to his already impressive array of big-screen accomplishments.

(Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”)