It's a European variation on the old Woody Allen staple

Rating: 7/10 (21 September 2008)

Woody Allen is a guy that keeps making variations on the same film over and over again, sometimes with lackluster results, but sometimes with sparkling results. Vicky Cristina Barcelona is one of his better attempts at the same story.
In fact, the Spanish setting helps give the film a sort of air of freedom that I haven't yet witnessed in an Allen film. Granted, I'm only acquainted with his older works, so perhaps he'd achieved that before. Again, he draws characters that are interesting, but in this case, they bordered on slight, being more than ciphers for himself, but not by much. And that's the thing, even without Allen physically on screen, the characters he writes still represent aspects of who he is and I think by dividing himself between Vicky and Cristina (believably played by the lead actresses), he weakens their characters. They are, after all a little flat.
Another problem with the film is that it's content to tell the story instead of show it. The magic of movies happens in the show, but Allen cops out and throws an omniscient narrator (very clearly a stand-in for his own voice) who describes what's happening on screen and relates information about who everyone is. The first half of the film really spends a lot of time setting up and without any notable dynamism, I found it a little boring.
Once the interpersonal conflicts start happening, the movie picks up. In fact, the Cristina sections of the film sort of flag because they lack any real conflict, but just move along smoothly. Vicky's sections are a little more interesting, but it's still only slightly engaging. I think that with storytelling and characters on the weak side, the film's real strong point is in building atmosphere. VCB is sort of an exploration of Barcelona and in that sense, it captures some of the magic in its air or, at least, Woody Allen's own fascination with the land pretty well.
In the end, VCB is a story about people with problems with finding what they want, whether out of the drive to achieve what they think they want or the inability to settle on what it is they want. A common Allen theme. But the Spanish background and gliding vibe help keep it somewhat interesting. Allen's easily done better, but VCB is just interesting enough that I wasn't disappointed. Still, it's not a dynamic film and lacking most of the elements that's found in Allen's best. As such, I can only recommend this film to those who usually enjoy Allen's films and want a different take on his usual neurosis. 7/10.