Reviewed by Joel Pedersen. Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival<\/p>\n
People often think they know whats up when it comes to love. The film Vicky Cristina Barcelona<\/em><\/strong> sets\u00a0the story\u00a0strait by conveying that no\u00a0one really knows how love truly works. Thanks to the genius of Woody Allen, this fact is shown\u00a0in a very funny but sensitive way. Also the truly beautiful\u00a0and visually pleasing sights\u00a0of barcelona don’t hurt.<\/p>\n With beautiful actors and scenery the film was bound to stand out more then most. You get to go on what feels like a vey itimate trip through spain – from the bars of Barcelona to the country charm of Oviedo.\u00a0 An outstanding performance was given by Javier Bardem.\u00a0 Who Americans know best as the crazed killer of the film No Country for Old Men.\u00a0\u00a0Here he is smooth, suave, and sophisiticated. So much so that Christina (Scarlett Johansen) can’t help but cave to his charm, whereas the already engaged Vicky (Rebecca Hall) can only find things to disapprove of in Bardem’s character Juan Antonio.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vicky and Christina are American travellers. Vicky is\u00a0trying to learn the ways of Catalan culture, while her companion Christina, who has just broken up with another boyfriend,\u00a0is on the prowl for a good time.\u00a0 Both girls find what they are looking for in the mysterious creature Juan Antonio…even his name has sexual edge. Little do they know that his ex-wife the exotic and nuerotic Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) is about to re-enter the picture.<\/p>\n The performance of Penelope Cruz as a crazed ex-wife is the stuff of legend.\u00a0\u00a0 Her range of emotion outshines her american costars.\u00a0\u00a0Johansen\u00a0pouts her lips in\u00a0pleasure or displeasure,\u00a0while\u00a0Hall\u00a0is always stressed and anxious.\u00a0\u00a0Cruz could be manic one moment, caring and sensitive\u00a0the next, but she never in any scene lost her character.\u00a0\u00a0She is Maria Elena, there is never a moment that I am not convinced that Cruz is this other women, even if my eyes tell me\u00a0otherwise.\u00a0\u00a0Everything about her is fully commited to the character even the way she holds\u00a0a cigarette.<\/p>\n \u00a0Juan Antonio is the stereo-typical sexy Spanish artist that\u00a0every guy\u00a0secretly\u00a0wishes to\u00a0be and every American girl wishes too find.\u00a0 He is at the center of not one, not two, but three beautiful women…the drama, the desire, all make it well worth a trip to the movies for another Woody Allen classic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reviewed by Joel Pedersen. Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival People often think they know whats up when it comes to love. The film Vicky Cristina Barcelona sets\u00a0the story\u00a0strait by conveying that no\u00a0one really knows how love truly works. Thanks to the genius of Woody Allen, this fact is shown\u00a0in a very funny but sensitive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":283,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2009"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/283"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}