If you’re expecting some sort of resolution or answers to the problems Woody Allen gives his characters, don’t hold your breath.
Vicky and Cristina are two Americans headed to Barcelona for a two month vacation. Impulsive, romantic Cristina and level-headed pragmatist Vicky are hosted by some distant family members cooped up in town. Vicky has a nice if rote life in front of her: she’s close to finishing a masters degree, engaged to be married to a boring yuppie and looking at that whole boring upper-middle class lifestyle. Cristina is searching for something different and new but can’t articulate what she does want, only what she doesn’t.
The two run into Juan Antonio, a brooding yet charming local painter who offers to take them to a remote area. After much resistance from Vicky and almost none from Cristina, the two head out with Juan Antonio, beginning a strange entanglements of romance and love. Juan Antonio is saddled with a volatile and slightly deranged ex-wife by the name of Maria Elena. As both Vicky and Cristina sleep with Juan Antonio, they come to have very different experiences.
Spoiler: Neither of them learns anything. Both question the nature of their lives, their hopes, their ideas about love and life, but it winds up having no greater effect on their lives. Cristina at one point even shacks up with Juan Antonio and Maria Elena, searching for something different but finds nothing to satisfy her. Vicky aggressively obsesses over the fact that her life with boring Doug may not be everything she ever hoped and dreamed of, only to face that she cannot stomach the rollercoaster life that Juan Antonio and Maria Elena lead.
We end the movie as we began: Juan Antonio has nearly been killed by Maria Elena, Vicky is on the same path she always has set herself on, and Cristina is still the carefree searcher. In many ways, Allen’s movie seems to contemplate the idea that life is pointless; that we make the same mistakes over and over again, that we never find the answers that make sense (or maybe we don’t ask the right questions). It’s beautiful and slightly sad, set to the sounds of Spanish guitars. Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a wonderful film that gives you a lot of mental cud to chew.
1416 and Counting 
I loved this movie! I liked that that it leaves you looking for answers, just like the characters.
It’s funny, because I think this is a movie that could have been really annoying, because the settings, the atmosphere, everything is just a little too perfect (Barcelona is gorgeous, the various houses they live in are awesome, the actors are all really good looking, the music is nice…) But it somehow works anyway, because it’s well written and because the actors are good. I found Rebecca Hall especially charming (of course, Scarlett Johansson is too, but I already knew that)
And also a last thing: I thought it really didn’t look like a Woody Allen movie.
And also a last thing: I thought it really didn’t look like a Woody Allen movie.
You know, I’ve never been the hugest Woody Allen fan, but the last set of movies he’s made – Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Cassandra’s Dream – look distinctly un-Woody. I wonder if he had some sort of strange mental change.
I liked that that it leaves you looking for answers, just like the characters.
Exactly. And like what you said above, it’s really easy to get exasperated/annoyed with the Rich People With Life Problems plot that gets trotted out way, way too much but he made it work really well.
Mmm… tourism porn. Barcelona was never on my list of places to go until I saw this movie. Money well spent, Spanish Tourism Board!
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One of my dumbest movie-going moves in recent memories was leaving my fiancee at home and going to see a screening of this movie alone.
Don’t know if it was all the pretty people, the many many glasses of wine being consumed, or the lush Spanish photography…but I got thirty minutes into this flick and felt immensely alone.
I love this film, perhaps because as you so perfectly put it, “nobody learns anything”. Four people come together…one by one upset the apple carts that are their own lives…and after digging themselves out of the rubble, start moving on as if nothing happened.
maybe they should have titled the film “What Happens in Barcelona…”
BTW, here’s what I thought of it way back when. Oh, and what’s a brother gotta do to get added to your blogroll?
This film reminded my of what Volver made me realise; Penelope Cruz is an amazing actress. She lit up the screen and I missed her whenever she wasn’t on it. But strangely I found Rebecca Hall’s character the most interesting.