Review of Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) by Asif K — 23 Aug 2010

Almodovar, Rohmer and Woody Allen had a love child. (I wouldn't put it past either of the three, regardless of age or sexual orientation) If not, well Woody Allen has been fantasizing to the sounds and sights of the French and Spanish directors.

This film is his most vibrant and vital, uncharacteristically so. I swear he's becoming sexier every year. That and he's certainly clued into the electricity of Xavier Bardem and Penelope Cruz.

But the pearl find is Rebecca Hall, who soberly channels Woody Allen giving us the most endearing reincarnation of the director's neurotic psyche to date. If Cruz is the Almodovarian feminine storm, Hall the Allenesque cerebralism, then Johannson (rather forgettable in this film) is the restless Rohmerian.

Bardem, I suppose is the painterly brush, masterfully wooing and blending the three palettes.