As the commenters are pointing out, Vicky Cristina Barcelona isn’t getting so many bad reviews as it getting good ones and Penelope Cruz, in particular, is looking like a standout. Woody’s films have always had a knack for winning Oscars for supporting roles for women, so don’t be surprised if Cruz ends up at the top of the list. Here is Todd McCarthy from Variety:
Cruz, who officially graduated from sex kitten to powerhouse melodramatic actress in “Volver,” is in full Anna Magnani mode here, storming up and down mountain peaks of emotion and captivating everyone in the process. Allen even generates affectionate comic mileage from the common rap on Cruz’s acting–that she’s great in Spanish but blah in English–by having her deliver Maria Elena’s colorful tirades in her native language, only to be told again and again by Juan Antonio to speak English so Cristina can understand her. She’s dynamite here in either language.
Richard Corliss of TIME Mag is impressed:
Well, maybe not in that empyrean, but arguably in the ballpark. It’s hard not to feel warmly toward Allen after VCB, his first vital movie since Match Point three years ago (we quickly throw the veil of oblivion over Scoop and Cassandra’s Dream), and maybe his most engaging large-scale effort since, let’s say, Crimes and Misdemeanors nearly 20 years ago. It doesn’t percolate with the inventive comic situations or quotable one-liners of the films that established his meta-movie credentials, Annie Hall and Manhattan; but, like them, this one is about people whose jobs are incidental to their real vocations of falling in love and messing things up. With seven major characters, five of whom have affairs during one Spanish summer, VCB is a God’s-eye view of the thesis that “only unfulfilled love can be romantic.”
And again for Ms. Cruz:
We’ve saved the most vibrant character for last: Maria Elena, which Penelope Cruz turns into one of her boldest, fullest characters. A painter so sexy that Juan Antonio’s father still has erotic dreams of her, Maria Elena had been Juan Antonio’s muse, competitor and wife; their turbulent marriage ended when she tried to kill him. Of course she shows up, once her ex has set up house with Cristina, allowing Allen to run further amorous permutations. A darkroom kiss between Cruz and Johansson is probably Allen’s most direct expression of romantic-sexual connection.
Whenever Bardem or Cruz are on screen, VCB finds its heart. It sees them as fully in tune with their feelings: totally willing, and why not?, to act on impulses they’ve learned to trust. The Americans are children by comparison, a little stiff, so conditioned to overanalyzing every attraction that they would lose the moment ‚Äî if only there weren’t a Don Juan Antonio to send seismic shivers up their consciences.
For Bardem and Cruz, I can’t wait to see this. I’m a little over Ms. Johansson, I’m sorry to say, and it isn’t really her fault – she’s overexposed at this point, sadly.
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