Review of Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) by Oxana — 24 Aug 2014

I had this movie borrowed from a colleague, and decided to watch it. I've liked most of Woody Allen's newest movies (Match Point and Cassandra's Dream), and Scarlett Johansson is never a downer either.

The narration in a movie really set it apart from most films I've seen, but not necessarily in a good way. Frankly, the narration really threw me off; whenever you started to get into the movie, the scene changed and there was that voice again. You were told what was going on instead of figuring it out for yourself.

The plot of the movie in itself moved in plunges; the narration set up a scene, and then it slowed down again. The film wasn't exactly boring, but sometimes it felt like nothing was going on. It was missing something meaningful. The little pieces did not create one, big image after all.

While the actors were pretty good, in the beginning of the film they seemed very stiff and unreal. Like they weren't really in the scene at all.

Not my favorite movie of all time, but not a bad one either. It had a good story to tell, leaving the end rather open for possibilities. That, of course, made the film feel sort of inconclusive and pointless; they were back to square one after all that trouble. Perhaps the point of the movie was to show that no matter what, a human nature never truly changes.