Pretty sights and lots of stereotypes

Rating: 3/10 (18 January 2009)

The film opens with a steady flow of stereotypes and despite the expectations of Woody Allen fans, continues with them to the very end. Let's have painters... because they are so romantic and passionate. Let's have Spaniards... because they are hot-blooded and beautiful. Let's have Barcelona... because every scene taken in it looks like a postcard, or something directed by Tourist Office of Barcelona (which is pretty close to the truth considering the City of Barcelona DID pay for much of the film's cost).
The setting and the cast seem to be picked from a poll in a women magazine. Since Antonio Banderas is old news, our readers chose masculine Javier Bardem. For his Spanish partner they chose Penelope Cruz who is not only beautiful, but also the only Spanish actress they have heard of. They also chose Scarlett Johanssen because they would choose her in pretty much any film. And let's have all these beautiful people indulge in wine tasting, flying private airplanes and picking blackberries for breakfast while they muse about art and love, because that's apparently how hot-blooded Spanish painters spend their days in Barcelona.
Allen fails to show the flip side of this fairy tale-like Spanish life style, fails to show a sudden twist, a funny moment, his trade mark wit, or at least a hot threesome scene. Johanssen is the only one showing an interesting performance. Hall, Bardem and Cruz are confined in stereotypical roles, and Bardem even looks embarrassed pushing a Latin lover routine.