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Just as New York City was the backdrop in Woody Allen's Manhattan, the stunning city of Barcelona is the setting for the romantic adventures of Vicky and Cristina. These two young Americans spend a summer in Spain and meet a flamboyant artist (Javier Bardem) and his beautiful but insane ex-wife (Penelope Cruz). Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is straight-laced and about to be married. Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) is a sexually adventurous free spirit. When they all become amorously entangled, the results can only be described as chaotic.
"As exhilarating, captivating and enjoyable as a summer romance in an exotic city." Claudia Puig, USA Today
"...Allen spectacularly returns to form with Vicky Cristina Barcelona, his funniest movie in years and arguably his sexiest." Lou Lumenick, New York Post
"...[Allen's] most entertaining picture since "Bullets Over Broadway" (1994) or maybe "Sweet and Lowdown" (1999)." Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun
"The film's freedom and control, its inspiration and focus, announce it as the work of a confident and mature artist." Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
"...a wry and thoughtful film...and arguably [Allen's] funniest in the eight years since "Small Time Crooks."" Scott Foundas, The Village Voice
"An irresistible comedy." Leah Rozen, People
"Fiery, crazy and sexy." Richard Roeper, At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper
Editor's Note
From watching the trailer for VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA, one might never have guessed that it was actually an offering from prolific auteur Woody Allen. There's no New York, no sight of Allen, and his trademark wit was nowhere to be seen. But this film--with its talented cast, sharp dialogue, and excellent use of gorgeous locations--marks Allen's best comic work since 1994's BULLETS OVER BROADWAY. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) are American best friends who have the luck of spending several summer months in the Spanish city of the title. Though the pair is inseparable, they clash over love: Vicky is engaged to the trustworthy Doug (Chris Messina), while Cristina is forever in search of new experiences and passions. When a fiery Spanish painter named Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) proposes that the three fly off to Oviedo for the weekend with the goal of making love, the women are divided, but they both eventually agree to the trip. After unexpected events in Oviedo, they return to Barcelona where Juan Antonio's obsessive ex-wife (Pénélope Cruz) enters the picture. As the rule-bound Vicky, Hall--who has been largely unknown to American audiences before this film--gives a wonderfully witty performance that keeps pace with her more famous costars. Those who have only seen Bardem in his Oscar-winning role as the cold killer in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN will be surprised by his sexy turn in VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA. Though it's often women who steam up the screen, Bardem seduces Vicky, Cristina, and the audience with such abandon that it's tough for everyone involved not to emerge a little bit smitten. Johansson, Allen's new-millennium muse, is the director's mouthpiece--she's consistently funny and more than a little neurotic, and you can hear Allen's voice in her performance.
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| Entertainment Reviews
 | Vicky Cristina Barcelona - DVD Review By: Chris Cabin - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 1/2/2009 4:44 PM | |
Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the venerable director's fourth consecutive film made outside of the U.S. (and more importantly, outside of New York City), is made up of scenes featuring well-spoken, awkwardly-placed rich people drinking wine, eating excellent Spanish cuisine, and visiting beautifully-aged sets that range from odd museums to classic villas to an amusement park that looks too gorgeous to run electricity through. As if one needed more reason to love Barcelona, it now turns out they have a Tilt-A-Whirl.
...read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: WEINSTEIN COMPANY |
| Release Date: 9/15/2009 |
| Running Time: 96 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2008 | | Catalog ID: 81672 | | UPC: 00796019816724 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Available Subtitles: English, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Golden Globe (2009) | | | Javier Bardem, Nominee, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical | |
Independent Spirit (2009) | | | Javier Bardem, Nominee, Best Male Lead | | | Penelope Cruz, Nominee, Best Supporting Female | |
Golden Globe (2009) | | | Penelope Cruz, Nominee, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture | |
Screen Actors Guild (2009) | | | Penelope Cruz, Nominee, Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role | |
Golden Globe (2009) | | | Rebecca Hall, Nominee, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical |  | Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Winner, Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical | |
Independent Spirit (2009) | | | Woody Allen, Nominee, Best Screenplay |
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| | Professional Reviews | Film Comment
"DP Javier Aguirresarobe makes locations and actors alike charming and delightful, bathing everything in a handsome, sun-glazed glow....[There are] glimmers of Allen's old confidence." 07/01/2008 p.68Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 5 -- "Woody Allen goes Latin, and the romantic, richly comic result -- powered by a dream cast -- is his sexiest movie ever....Cruz is a stunner in every sense of the word..." 08/21/2008 p.92 New York Times
"VICKY CRISTINA trips along winningly, carried by the beauty of its locations and stars -- and all the gauzy romanticism those enchanted places and people imply..." 08/15/2008 USA Today
"[E]xhilarating, captivating and enjoyable....Woody Allen's latest comedy about the vagaries of passion, set in Barcelona, shows that lovely Spanish city off to its best advantage, just as it does its lead actors." 08/20/2008 Premiere
"[P]roviding a setting so distinct from anything else in Allen's oeuvre that it creates the pleasurable illusion of something completely different." 08/14/2008 Box Office
3 stars out of 5 -- "The performances of Bardem, Cruz, Johansson and Hall are delightfully inventive....This may not be vintage Woody Allen, but it's certainly the best thin he has done in a long time..." 08/01/2008 p.45 Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he story is beautifully judged. This time when the lights come up, we're sadder and wiser in the best sense." 02/01/2009 Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "A dispatch from the battle between the head and heart....It's clear, perceptive and, most surprisingly, hot-headed and frisky." 03/01/2009 Reel.com 8 of 10
Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the venerable director's fourth consecutive film made outside of the U.S. (and more importantly, outside of New York City), is made up of scenes featuring well-spoken, awkwardly-placed rich people drinking wine, eating excellent Spanish cuisine, and visiting beautifully aged sets that range from odd museums to classic villas to an amusement park that looks too gorgeous to run electricity through...When in London, Allen used all sharp tones, imagery-wise. Even the shopfronts were perfect. At first, this yielded excellent results (Match Point) and the stage was set for a resurrection of the eternal kvetch. Allen's two follow-ups--Scoop and Cassandra's Dream--debunked those hopes, proving that very same sharpness can lead to the visually mundane. In Spain, however, everything already has a built-in romance to it. The old-style Spanish houses, the Gaudi architecture, the auditory splendor of Spanish guitar playing. You're supposed to swoon on cue--and you do...After a career that covers 40-odd films, Vicky Cristina Barcelona certainly isn't one of Allen's best, but it's a country mile ahead of the bevy of mediocrity that showed up from the late '90s until Match Point...Vicky Cristina Barcelona shows Allen deflecting his chapter-and-verse filmmaking for better and worse and, in a career that was already cemented as legendary by the early `90s, that counts for something. - Chris Cabin
ReelViews 7 of 10
There was hope in 2005 that Woody Allen had re-discovered his groove with the release of Match Point. Since then, however, he has slipped back into the sinkhole of mediocrity that kept him from greatness throughout most of the '90s and '00s. Unfortunately, Match Point is beginning to look like an exception. None of the three movies to reach theaters after it have come close to achieving an equal plateau, although this latest effort, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, is a step up from its immediate predecessors, Scoop and Cassandra's Dream...Can a voiceover narrative ruin a movie? Probably not, but it can undermine one, and that's what happens here. Allen commits the cardinal sin of constantly break into his story with a barrage of verbal diarrhea uttered by Christopher Evan Welch, who really doesn't have the voice for this kind of thing...Vicky Cristina Barcelona represents Allen's fourth consecutive project outside of the United States...There are some positive qualities to Vicky Cristina Barcelona, not the least of which is the picturesque location work. Here, Allen is writing adult characters rather than caricatures, but his big misstep - the godawful voiceover - is so grating that it's as if the director accidentally swapped out the real soundtrack for a bad DVD commentary. I can't say that Vicky Cristina Barcelona would have been a great movie without the narration, but it would have been better. - James Berardinelli
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