Important Travel Advisory from a resident of Barcelona :-)

Rating: 8/10 (10 January 2009)

Earlier today, while making silly predictions for the Golden Globe winners, I suggested that "In Bruges" was actually funny, whereas the other nominees in the category of Best Comedy were not. In saying that I did an injustice to Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."
VCB is funny. Just not in that LOL kind of way that "In Bruges" was for me. It's more of a wise, unattached funny, the kind that might be written and directed by, say, the Ultimate New York Neurotic.
And I really loved the film. If you want an inspiration to visit my area of Catalunya, this film is it in spades. Woody has always had an uncanny eye for capturing the beauty of the locales in which he films. Think "Manhattan." 'Nuff said, right? OK, Barcelona and the area of Spain around it are easily as beautiful as Gordon Willis' Manhattan. And it's all right up there on screen, no special effects necessary. It's really a lovely place.
But, in the interest of Touristic Integrity, I feel it necessary to correct some of the clichés and/or stereotypes that Woody writes into his script, and his characters. I would not wish that hapless Americans, seduced by the vision of the joys of Catalunya as seen by a New Yorker, might venture to my adopted land expecting one thing, and thus possibly set themselves up to miss the real charms of the place. My quibbles with Woody's vision are the following:
1. First, not all Spanish women are as attractive as Penelope Cruz. Penelope was considered the Ugly Duckling of the class throughout her school years, and still is. The Spanish don't hold it against her, because she can act. ( On the other hand, Spanish women *are* all as crazy as her character of Maria Elena. Potential tourists, be warned. )
2. Second, not all guitarists in Spain are as good as the ones featured in the film. There is one guy in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona who really sucks.
3. Third, not all Spanish men are as charming and handsome and have as smooth a line of bull as Javier Bardem does in VCB. That's a myth, as pervasive and as misunderstood as the myth of Penelope Cruz's beauty. The only men in Spain who are as charming, handsome, and well-spoken as Javier Bardem's character Juan Antonio in VCB are American ex-pat writers living in Sitges. They also have a characteristic that Juan Antonio lacks in the film -- humility.
4. Fourth, and this is more trivia than a correction, part of the film is set in the city of Oviedo. One of the sights of Oviedo is a life-size statue of Woody Allen, which was installed in 2003. Woody avoided what must have been a Hitchcockian temptation to include it in the film. I guess neurotic New York filmmakers have that humility thing going for them, too.
Thank you for your kind attention to this Travel Advisory.