Barcelona, art and romance

Rating: 8/10 (29 January 2009)

This new film by Woody Allen is a comedy/drama romance set in Barcelona with all the typical "Woody Allen ingredients": irony, humor, failed relationships, but all with the charm and the elegance we are used to watch in Woody's films! I enjoyed the movie especially because it's quite realistic and unrealistic at the same time. I mean, by one hand it has some kind of situations that just happens in movies, like that scene where the two girls accept the invitation to go to Oviedo, but on the other hand it describes very well the undefined feelings people sometimes feel for each other. In this particular case I really appreciated the role played by Penelope Cruz. I think she does a fantastic job, playing this stressed, lunatic, jealous but passionate girl! And one interesting idea I took from this love triangle composed by the characters played by Cruz, Barden and Johansson, MARIA ELENA, JUAN ANTONIO, and CRISTINA, respectively: Love can happen between three people. In the film CRISTINA is the bridge between MARIA ELENA and JUAN and she's also the "equilibrium point" of all them, as was said by MARIA ELENA. So CRISTINA was the piece that was missing to complete the puzzle between MARIA ELENA and JUAN, and their relationship would be incomplete without her. Love doesn't happen always just between two people... But in the film this connection was also broken and the puzzle stilled incomplete!...(SPOILERS)... As the movie begins as the movie ends: CRISTINA who started seeking for adventure stilled seeking for adventure; VICKY who started engaged stilled engaged; and MARIA ELENA and JUAN who started angry with each other stilled angry with each other!