Efficient but a bit simplistic

Rating: 8/10 (22 September 2010)

Give me Barcelona and especially Gaudi's architecture as a set for a film and I will be happy (and given how Woody Allen filmed it I guess he loves it as much as I do). Give me some Spanish dialogues to hear and try to understand and I will be happy. Give me Scarlett Johansson as one of the main actresses and I will be happy. Is it still necessary to say I am happy with Vicky Christina Barcelona, where indeed Barcelona is the third character rather than Maria Elena? More deeply, give me some young women questioning their own definition of love and I will be happy, as (sadly?) I am still looking for it and questioning the reality of a good balance between stability and passion (yes emotionally I am mature as a teenager, I know). But make them go back to their life without having progressed from an inch and I am not happy anymore. I wasn't asking for Vicky to jump from a stable husband to a crazy artist, but scared people can't stay scared. I wasn't asking for Christina to find her definition of what she wants from love, but running away people can't go on running-away. In fact people can't stay how they are, whoever they are; personal development IS lifespan for god sake! OK, maybe I am harsh and I could think their Spanish interlude will influence them at some point. But this is really not the feeling I have; especially when Judy appears, walking with the husband she doesn't love anymore, I don't really take this as a clue of evolution. Hence there is a more global feeling at the end, where as a European I feel like Americans consider the old continent (and especially the Southern one) as just a playground to test their philosophy of life before going back to it, a place where you can live some craziness before living a serious life in America. Annoying because simplistic and categorical, annoying because this relies on the assumption that you can't have both, some craziness and some seriousness.