new release - ¦ ¦- VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA - ¦ ¦- 5/10 - ¦ ¦- online WED.7.JAN.

Published on: January 5th, 2009

"We saw the Fellini film last Tuesday. It was not one of his best. It lacks a — cohesive structure. You know, you get the feeling that he's not absolutely sure what it is he wants to say… I found it incredibly — indulgent. You know, he really is. He's one of the most indulgent filmmakers. He really is…"
                                Man In Theatre Line (Russell Horton), Annie Hall

It feels somewhat unfair to use a Woody Allen classic as a stick with which to beat his latest offering, but Vicky Cristina Barcelona is indeed "not one of his best", does indeed lack a "cohesive structure", and it could support the accusation that has indeed now become an "indulgent" filmmaker.
   After three outings in Britain – including the dire, inexplicably (in certain quarters) overrated Match Point – he now trains his attention on the Catalonian capital, in no small part because the government there ponied up (from public purse) a hefty slice of the budget. While one can't blame Allen for seeking new sources of funding, there's something rather troubling about this development – presumably if the cash is forthcoming, we may find future projects showcasing the delights of, say, Phnom Penh, Adelaide or Gdansk.
   And while Barcelona does look suitably alluring as a backdrop here, the locale doesn't seem to have particularly engaged or inspired Allen's imagination: the cultural references (principally Gaudi and Miro) are the kind of thing anyone might pick up from a fleeting day-trip to 'BCN,' or even from a cursory inspection of a travel-guide. And the fictional story he spins is a decidedly slim affair, one that relies quite heavily on national stereotypes: a pair of adventurous American friends (Scarlett Johansson as Cristina, Rebecca Hall as Vicky) spend a stimulating, emotionally torrid few summer months in and around the city, where they fall under the spell of a swaggering artist-cum-lothario (Javier Bardem) – although the latter is evidently still in thrall to his ex-wife, also an artist (Penelope Cruz in full-tilt Latina-spitfire mode.)
   The ploddingly predictable, not-very-steamy sexual roundelay among the photogenic foursome is accompanied by near-incessant, largely pointless commentary from an unseen narrator (Christopher Evan Welch), who repeatedly tells us exactly what everyone is thinking and feeling at various points – as if such information was not readily otherwise available. This narrator is perhaps included as a kind of reverse-homage to the Allen-influenced Whit Stillman, who employed a variation of the device in his own Barcelona (1994) – another picture tracing the interactions between a couple of Americans at large in the eponymous metropolis.
   By stirring memories of Stillman's delightful forerunner, however, Allen simply emphasises his own current inadequacies. Hall is winning and manages to overcome the unmistakeably Allen-ish inflections and repetitions of the dialogue (he's becoming positively Mamet-esque in his insistence on everyone talking and behaving near-identically), and the picture is occasionally diverting and witty. But Vicky Cristina Barcelona - what an awkward, pretentious title, by the way – is really an eminently forgettable, disposable affair, one which provides further dismaying evidence of Allen's continuing creative rut. And the sad thing is, even his formerly staunchest fans have pretty much given up expecting any upturn any time soon.

Neil Young, 7th January, 2009

director : Woody Allen
country : Spain/USA
year : 2008
run-time : 96m (BBFC)

seen : 1st January, 2009
cinema : DDS
format : 35mm
paid :  £2.64 approx

MVP : Rebecca Hall (actor)*
respected second opinion : Scott Foundas, The Village Voice

[nb : rating was initially posted as 6/10 in error]

* extra-curricular MVP : Woody Allen