between aspects

Rating: 9/10 (16 November 2008)

This film is brilliant. Acting, plot and also ideology are its main points and make it great.
Though I could spend half of an hour here talking about who good it is, I want to highlight one aspect that has called my attention very intensively.
It's related to the construction of the character Doug, Vicky's husband. It seems to me that he has been put on the film as the character which we would/should dislike and rebuff because his vision of the world, turned to those principles related and based on the American-capitalistic society, disapproving the conduct of Cristina, focused on the "absolute freedom".
This situation is mentioned during the film, when the narrator says that Cristina is more likely to the European society than to the American one, puritan and materialistic.
Althoug this ideology of the film, related to the art, freedom and pursuit of the "real me", Doug's position and points of view are really well built and substantiated. He can handle it with reasons and good arguments, as we can see when he talks about the ephemerality of the relationship in a "absolute freedom" situation, and how it leads to unhappiness.
Therefore, the maniqueism that we could find on the film vanishes by the confrontation of ideas, making it much better than what I could have expected. Even the the "boring and old fashioned" character is an outstanding one, essential to the whole story.
I won't talk about Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall and Javier Bardem. They need no words.