Review of Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) by Rob L — 05 Aug 2010

Late period Allen has often been viewed as a tiresome spell of failed attempts to recapture former glories ? but that he hasn?t matched his seventies peaks is scarcely surprising given the fecundity of that period. I should confess to having largely avoided his work in recent times, but found myself sitting through this very recent item one Summer afternoon in 2010.

It?s pretty execrable of course ? a travel show of a movie that would put Judith Chalmers to shame. All the clichés of the Catalan city are up front, although locals will rile at the constant mentions of ?Spain?. The central conceit is a decidedly cumbersome and clichéd ménage à trois which mutates into a ménage à quatre when Penelope Cruz arrives on the scene. The lucky man in all this is Javier Bardem, in a role straight from the shelf marked ?red hot Latin lovers?.

Therein lies the problem, it seems that if a script demands someone Spanish or Latin American, only a pool of about 5 actors are ever considered. Bardem strolls through the role and in a cast wooden enough to be a forest, Scarlet Johansen is crushingly uninteresting as an American plaything. The whole is accompanied by just about as pointless a voiceover as you could think of ? like Paul Gambaccini standing in for Simon Bates on ?Our Tune?.