Woody Allen's best uncompleted movie?

Rating: 7/10 (22 January 2012)

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Allen's most nonsensical movie title since Broadway Danny Rose) is probably the best film Woody Allen never completed. With a fractured narrative and a narrator to cover the gaps, it's not even blessed with an especially strong ending. Like a lot of Allen works, things just fade to black rather than conclude. And despite all of this... it's still a very strong entry in his canon.
What's most interesting about Woody's work in his fifth decade as filmmaker is his decision to regularly shoot abroad and introduce us to new characters. Perhaps realising that there's only so many stories you can tell about neurotic Jewish New Yorkers, Allen pitches camp in several different locales, including three pictures set in the capital of England.
Of the London trilogy, then none of the films are particularly representative of a recognisable London. In fact, the characters in Cassandra's Dream (5) aren't even particularly representative of recognisable Londoners. But if the film is undermined by Ewan McGregor giving an uncharacteristically weak performance and seemingly struggling with both the leaden dialogue and the need to say "Terry" nearly every single line, then it was still a worthwhile experiment. An experiment that borrows from Crimes and Misdemeanors (as does Match Point, 7) but one that at least sees him pitch his director's chair in a new setting.
His delight in Scarlett Johannsen's company produces here her third work with the director after the memorable Match Point and the sadly forgettable Scoop (5). As he approaches his 50th movie, Allen seems to have lost his edge for pure comedy, such as with the toothless Hollywood Ending (5), wasting Larry David in mediocre Whatever Works (5) or possibly his career-worst Small Time Crooks (4). One of the best out-and-out comedies he achieved during the decade was the three minute short after the 9/11 attacks, Sounds from a Town I Love (6). Yet even that small runtime is filled with reactionary humour, like a lot of Woody's work these days. The concept of older people being outraged at younger culture is one that works to decreasing effect, even though this short generally works well. To this end his work in comedy drama or even complete drama is far more rewarding today. When it comes to the humour vehicles he was once known for, there's a sense that Woody's heart is either no longer in it or he's just going through the motions. The exception to this rule was Anything Else (7), a film that reused some jokes wholesale and met with very mixed reviews, but is surprisingly strong for this late period.
The rest of Allen's output for the decade – Melinda and Melinda, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (both 6) - are watchable albeit forgettable works. But when he travels abroad it's as if the trip rejuvenates a director who is beginning to approach his 80s. Vicky Cristina Barcelona is one of the few real successes from this run, but the point is no longer whether these are great movies, but as to whether they're NEW movies. There's already one Annie Hall, anyone can buy the DVD, and so multiple variations of it from Woody on automatic aren't what the world needs. Barcelona is an Allen film that unusually comes from a female perspective, despite a male narrator telling us what characters are thinking and feeling throughout.
Woody Allen has created some languid films, but ones which don't outstay their welcome: if we discount the likes of What's New, Pussycat? And Casino Royale then Allen didn't break the 100 minute mark until 1986's Hannah and Her Sisters. Since that breakthrough moment the longer format has become a fairly regular staple for Allen, with a dozen movies from 1989-2007 exceeding this length. All of which statistical musings make it doubly curious why Vicky Cristina Barcelona was hauled in at 96 minutes when at least another twenty would have done. For a low key, would-be reflective film we're frequently not given time to actually reflect, time and space constantly shunted forward and explained to us in favour of the next vignette. A strong, enjoyable movie that is deservedly one of Allen's most successful, and arguably his best since Husband and Wives... but one that could have been even more.