Panico y Locura en Barcelona

Rating: Null/10 (8 December 2008)

At one point in this the latest Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona one of the characters sees the world that she always wanted right there in her table but at that moment that world was no longer her perfect world, she was certainly concern, her head was thinking in many things but always the fear was present, to stay means to be in the place that she don't want any more and to go means to try to get what she really wants, is with the man that she always loved or with the man that she is in love with. In this film each character had a time that they will never forget and that certainly they will try to forget, first we meet the Americans, two young and beautiful women, friends that are together in a different continent, Spain is the country and Barcelona is the exact place, we meet Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), the narrator tell us how they are different from each other and we soon see that, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) is the one who will help in order to show us how both friends are different from each other. None of these three will forget the others, certainly Juan Antonio will be out of the lives of both women in a not very long period of time but for sure if somehow Vicky stops seeing Cristina they will not forget the other. Cristina and Juan Antonio were the ones with the same intentions at the beginning of their relation and at one point the two American friends has their man with them in Barcelona and we see the four together. Penelope Cruz is Maria Elena, we don't see Penelope during the first part of the film but we know about her character since the moment we know more or less who is Juan Antonio, certainly for the two American friends to hear about Juan Antonio is to hear about Maria Elena and to be with Juan Antonio is to hear more about Maria Elena. Penelope is all you want and also very funny but certainly she is not funny for Juan Antonio and Cristina and she will be everything but funny for Vicky however for us she says some really funny things, she says a lot in Spanish and with her craziness everything turns really enjoyable, I think Penelope did my favourite performance of this film. A situation, Maria Elena was and still is in love with Juan Antonio and he is in the same position, the factor that makes this relation finally a stable one is actually a person, is actually Cristina. I remember reading time ago about the scene that was going to appear in Woody's upcoming feature, for sure Scarlett Johansson is incredible sexy in this one. Anyway, Scarlett's character is not sure about anything, she loves this, she enjoys that but she in this part of her life will not find a thing like stability, after all this was just an adventure, a strange summer. Woody let us know enough about each character to can be surprised by some of their actions, after all they are in love, in love with the place also and all share that feeling, Barcelona provokes many things for them, there is music, painting, photograph, love, fear, dreams. Each player of Woody shines, not in a really amazing way and some more than others but each one of them is at least very good. Scarlett is the only one of the main cast whose performance is not the first in a Woody Allen film and I think still Match Point has her most memorable performance of the now three under the direction of Allen.
It's not been really a long time since I had my first experience with a Woody Allen film but now every time a Woody film comes to the theaters of my city I certainly save my time. To be honest this was only the third Allen film that I see on the big screen, the first one was Scoop back in January of 2007 and the second one was Cassandra's Dream actually in this same year so Vicky Cristina Barcelona was the second Allen film that was released here in Mexico in 2008, with it I have seen 25 Allen feature films and it is maybe my favourite or at least it is in my top 3 of Allen films from this decade and I have seen all of his films of the 00s. Small Time Crooks was funny but I was expecting a whole lot more from it. For me The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Hollywood Ending and Scoop are extremely enjoyable little gems that I would like to watch again. Anything Else and Melinda and Melinda (a real gem for me) are also films that I really liked and from them I was expecting simply awful films. As for the others film in England I think Match Point is overrated when someone says it is one of Allen's very best but I found there an excellent and strange film and Cassandra's Dream is not as good as Match Point but is worth watching. Vicky Cristina Barcelona is another little gem that you should check. 9.5 out of 10