the trials and tribulations of the rich and beautiful

Rating: 8/10 (9 May 2009)

In his latest romantic escapade, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," Woody Allen, that wry purveyor of modern relationships, turns sexiness into a purely aesthetic experience. Of course, that's not all that hard to do when you have a cast of drop-dead gorgeous actors exploring the fine art of love and lovemaking in a drop-dead gorgeous setting.
The two main women in the story represent diametrically opposed views of love and men. Vicky is the clear-thinking pragmatist who, when it comes to the opposite sex, opts for the stodgy and reliable type over the dashing romantic ideal - a preference reflected in her choice of fiancé, the stuffed-shirt Doug, whose dutiful dullness makes him a perfect fit for Vicky's middlebrow conception of domestic bliss. Cristina, on the other hand, fancies herself more as the free-living Bohemian type, a gifted amateur photographer who prefers the more "dangerous" breed of man - one whose propensity for living life in the moment simmers just beneath the surface of a handsome appearance and smoldering sexuality.
When they travel to Spain for the summer, the two best friends almost immediately find themselves entangled in a complex romantic relationship with Juan Antonio, an abstract painter who inflames the women with his cultured temperament, his devil-may-care attitude, his smooth-talking ways, his raw animal magnetism and his Old World passion for life. And as if all that weren't enough, we get a fourth ingredient added to the already spicy brew: Maria Elena, Juan Antonio's beautiful, volatile and possibly mentally unbalanced ex-wife whom the artist has clearly never gotten over - and apparently never will.
As always, Allen achieves a remarkable complexity both in his characters and in his view of how romantic and sexual attraction actually work. This is reflected most intensely in the character of Vicky who, after a brief but sizzling encounter with Juan Antonio, comes to question her old willingness to settle for staid conformity and emotional security over all-consuming passion and romance. This, of course, puts her whole future marriage in jeopardy as well as her friendship with Cristina, once the latter becomes the live-in lover of Juan Antonio. But Cristina has problems of her own to contend with when an emotionally distraught Maria Elena pops up unexpectedly, taking up residence with the newly formed couple in Juan Antonio's home. With each additional twist of the plot, Allen brings new color and depth to his canvas, as now the complexities of Juan Antonio and Maria Elena's self-destructive love/hate relationship suddenly come racing to the fore.
At times the emotions are so raw and close to the bone - and the truths about human relationships so pinpoint in their accuracy - that the movie becomes almost unbearable to sit through. Or at least it would if the tone itself weren't so consistently scintillating and lighthearted and the setting so eye-popping and sensuous. In fact, I predict that Barcelona - so richly photographed here by Javier Aguirresarobe -will be experiencing a tourism boom for years to come thanks to this film.
Although it was Penelope Cruz who earned a number of awards (including the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress) for her work as Maria Elena, all the actors in this film - Rebecca Hall, Scarlet Johansson, Javier Bardem, Patricia Clarkson and Chris Messina - deliver rich, outstanding performances. And it may just be me, but the singsong, deliberately simplistic narration that Allen has attached to the story appears to be an homage of sorts to Truffaut's "Jules and Jim," probably the most famous romantic roundelay ever committed to film.
The conclusion "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" seems to come to is that NEITHER approach to love really works in the long run - that while too little passion in a relationship may lead to a life of endless regrets over unrealized possibilities, too much passion can result in burnout, serial infidelity and mutual self-destruction for the individuals involved.
Perhaps, Friar Lawrence's advice to the impetuous Romeo and Juliet - "Therefore, love moderately: long love doth so; too swift arrives as tardy as too slow" - was right after all.