Underwhelming (Vicky Cristina Barcelona (DVD))

Member Name: byblox

Product:	Vicky Cristina Barcelona (DVD)
Date:	06/07/09 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good homage to a beautiful city

Disadvantages: Unsympathetic characters

The story centres on two friends, Vicky and Cristina who are visiting Barcelona for several weeks prior to Vicky's wedding. They meet and become involved with a local artist (Javier Bardem) a man with a complicated private life. The more earnest of the two friends, Vicky, dismisses the artist's overtures while Cristina (Scarlett Johannsen) sucumbs. From here the relationships between the characters become ever more complex and confusing.

After Penelope Cruz winning an Oscar for her role in this Woody Allen film, I was looking forward to watching this film but was sadly underwhelmed. The settings are beautiful, the homage to the great city appropriate, the music, the architecture is all as impressive as it should be. However somewhere in the mix some sympathetic characters were left aside.

Essentially a comedy of (very modern) manners, the characters banter and bed each other and it just seems to become a little tedious. Everyone (as in life) is flawed but few of the characters elicit any sympathy in my opinion. I was hoping for something wry and witty as in Allen's best films but this is perhaps not a contender, there's barely enough humour to raise a smile.

96 minutes, rated 12 though I can't imagine anyone under 18 being interested in various thirtysomethings and their emotional crises! Retails at a hefty £15.98 on Amazon, one to rent if everything better is out.

Summary: Not vintage Woody