Well cast and scenery succeeds

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2015)

Vicky Cristina Barcelona possesses an energy, an intelligence and most of all, a passion that hasn't been seen from Allen in years. Gratefully, the filmmaker completely avoids making either of his actresses stand-ins or proxies for himself as he has done in the past, allowing Johansson and Hall to find the truth and humanity within their characters without forcing them to subscribe to some neurotic shtick, much less any of his other Allen-heroine clichés. Best of all, he crafts a completely believable portrait of each woman's uncertainty and in the process creates an interesting cross-section of romantic ideals between Vicky and Cristina's opposite perspectives.