The music saved this film.

Rating: 7/10 (14 July 2017)

I was building great expectations before seeing Vicky Cristina Barcelona, because of its incredible cast and my admiration towards Spanish and Catalan cultures, plus the fact that I visited Barcelona twice before and I was fascinated by it. But unfortunately the film did not fulfill my expectations. I am not saying it is a bad movie, unless I wouldn't have given it seven stars, however there are many choices that this picture took which were not much of a success, like choosing to put a narrative passage every five minutes to give us information about the characters that could've easily been transmitted through dialogue or action between the actors. Another thing I did not like was some performances especially by Scarlett Johanson who's acting didn't convince me with her portrayal of the characters feeling and getting them to the spectators. While on the bright side, the incredibly beautiful score of this movie with its charming flamenco melodies was intelligently employed and added a sort of symbolism to it. In addition, the performances by the other actors were pretty good, Penelope Cruz did an amazing job though I don't think her performance is Oscar worthy, with her appearing only in the second half of the movie in a few counted, but satisfying, shots. Javier Bardem and Rebecca Hall were both pretty fine. In a word, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a fun movie to watch that depicts love from a different point of view and is quite worth a shot.