Review of Barcelona (1994) by Bryan W — 18 Dec 2009

Easily the least interesting of Whit Stillman's films. Though Chris Eigeman continues to exude cynical intelligence under the man who shot him to stardom, it's never more clear here that his talent is being used to convey Stillman's most dense and unwieldy observations. In fact, this film's weaknesses exemplify the weakest aspects of Stillman's other films, namely those very same unwieldy observations.

It seems almost as though Stillman has had a conversation on a relatively innocuous subject, forms a solid, slightly askew opinion on it, and simply MUST put it in his films despite the fact that it has nothing to do with the plot and might even detract from the film on the whole. By noticing this here, I've also begun to see similar problems with another writer who takes a page from Stillman, namely Noah Baumbach.

In any case, the film is an interesting amalgam of ideas and has a few poignant moments, but on the whole fails to really cohere as either a comedy or a drama, and the only thing that really makes the film have anything to do with romance is the presence of relationships throughout.