Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Woody Allen is famous for bringing together characters each of whom has a set of insecurities and unresolved issues  . . . then steps back and let’s the fun, and the fireworks, begin.  This is what is at work in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and it’s an entertaining and some what humorous display.  You probably have to go back almost ten years (”Sweet And Low”) to find an Allen film that works as well.  The standard criticism seems to be that Woody hasn’t done anything good since the ’70s.  Forgetting last decades’ “Manhattan Murder Mystery,” “Bullets Over Broadway” and “Everyone Says I Love You.” Vicky Cristina Barcelona is right at home among those films. [ RT ]

RT Synopsis: 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 are both hilarious and harrowing.