Poor writing is the downfall

Rating: 1/10 (17 December 2008)

Well, if you've got a boring concept and lackluster writing, it's hard for even the best director and the most inspired actors to redeem a film. That's what we get here - boring and lackluster, and of course, Allen qua director cannot be expected to redeem Allen qua writer.
I kept on watching, hoping that the movie would finally blossom in some interesting way. It never did. Sure, there're some pretty sights of Barcelona, and I am always at the ready to be enthralled by the shear beauty of SJ and/or PC. But there really was nothing there. An uninteresting story about uninteresting people. Sad, actually.
(As a parenthetical (wholly parenthetical) - what a mistake to set a film in Barcelona, indeed a film in which one of the major characters has a recent college major in "Catalan Identity", and not have Catalan play any role at all. Bizarre. "Speak in English" is Juan Antonio's constant refrain to Maria Elena; I suppose Allen means that to mean something, but speaking in English is, apparently, the limit of Allen's capabilities in this film, and a very pedestrian and uninspired English, as well. . . )
As to the scads of 8 and 9 etc stars for the flic; well, I'm just at a loss to explain them, apart from "de gustibus non est . . ." "à chacun son goût" and, of course, however you say it in Catalan . . .