Vicky Cristina Barcelona
WHAT
VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
WHERE
MOST MAJOR CINEMAS
WHEN
OUT DEC 26
WATCH TRAILER
HERE
WIN
THANKS TO HOPSCOTCH FILMS, WIN ONE OF 10 IN-SEASON DOUBLE PASSES. JUST EMAIL WIN@TWOTHOUSAND.COM.AU WITH THE SUBJECT LINE ‘I'LL GO TO YOUR MOVIE, BUT YOU'LL HAVE TO SEDUCE ME'
Woody Allen may have shifted to sunny Catalonia with a Spanish crew, but you'll have to prise his trademark blend of sentimentality and bourgeois satire - and his favourite typeface - from his cold, dead hands.
Scarlett Johansson plays Cristina, the 'Free-Spirited Sexpot'; Rebecca Hall is Vicky, the 'Uptight WASP'. Javier Bardem is Juan Antonio, the improbably suave artist who seduces them both, while Penélope Cruz plays his ex-wife, Maria Elena, as a cross between Amy Winehouse and Frida Kahlo.
It's a gorgeous yet dispiriting film. The smug narrator (Christopher Evan Welch) has everyone pegged from the start, making the characters' yearnings seem pretentious and futile. Maria Elena is mad as a brush, yet sharp enough to mock Cristina's dilettantish bohemianism. Vicky can't speak Spanish, yet is writing a thesis on Catalan culture. And her fiancé Doug (Chris Messina) is so comically dull he's intriguing.
Despite not even getting her picture on the poster, Hall rises above the other actors' deftly drawn caricatures (although I'm not sure Scarlett realises she's a caricature) with a performance full of bittersweet, unexpressed longing. Vicky's tragedy - and the film's - is that awakening to romantic possibilities simply isn't enough.
Format: Cinema
Mood: Make a therapy appointment now
Keywords: Woody Allen, Scarlett Johansson
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