Beautiful visuals + superb performances = very good film.

Rating: 10/10 (18 August 2008)

Over the past decade, every few years, film critics create a lot of buzz by saying that Woody Allen's newest film is a "return to form." Since he's been cranking them out at a breakneck pace, (one a year for about forty years) and his glory days of the 1970's have long passed, most often, the common conception has been that Allen's work in the 90's and early 00's has been subpar. Now, I can't speak for that, as I've only seen a handful of Allen films, most of which were made in this decade, but I can say without hesitation that "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" is a very good film. It's being billed as a romantic comedy, but I don't know that that's completely accurate. Without a doubt, it covers the territory that romantic comedies tend to cover, but I think "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" is a cut above the conventions of an atypical romantic comedy. To be sure, it's funny, but it's funny in a way that's muted, smart, and respectful of the viewer's intelligence, instead of appealing to the lowest common denominator for big laughs. The performances are uniformly excellent, particularly in the case of Rebecca Hall. I really liked her character, Vicky, and her storyline, and felt that Hall was terrific in the role. I'd love to see her get an Oscar nomination. Bardem, despite Juan Antonio's somewhat implausible behavior, manages to somehow make him a completely believable character. Johansson, who has underwhelmed me in everything I've seen her in since her great work in "Lost In Translation," also turns in a good performance. Her character, Cristina, like Juan Antonio, is also somewhat erratic, but she plays it in such a way that it feels authentic for the complex character that she creates. As for Cruz, she's terrific, and very well might receive an Oscar nomination. Her character, Maria Elena, feels note-perfect. What's even better is that these strong performances were attached to a great screenplay, which I think might garner an Oscar nomination. What amazes me is that Woody Allen, a 72 year-old man from Brooklyn, somehow, someway, found his way into the hearts and minds of so many different people from all walks of life and wrote them in a way that feels spot-on. There are scenes in which some characters are speaking Spanish and others are speaking English and the scene totally works. Additionally, the film looks great. Allen captures Barcelona at its best. He really uses the locations to his advantage, but, at the same time, in the end, I really had invested in the characters and took a lot more out of the film than just a bunch of lovely images. See, at its heart, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" is a study of the human heart and the reasons and thought processes that people use to make choices, just like the best of Allen's work. We might look at the screen and want to tell the character to stop what they're doing or to just "go for it," but we never for once lose sight of who that person is. This wonderful sense of humanity is a big part of what makes "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" a more than worthy addition to the Woody Allen canon, and even more than that, a very good film.