Vicky Christina Barcelona sees Allen at the top of his game. He decides upon a beautiful setting, assembles a perfect cast and then starts to toy with the characters he has created. I bet he had a chuckle when he wrote the story for this one because at a point I realized the wickedly playful grin that Woody must have had taking the story in unexpected directions, making the characters do something which were completely antagonistic to what the narrator had described of them at the start. I also knew that this grin would have turned into a roaring laugh when he went bat shit crazy at the end and brought into the picture the “awesome-threesome”

I particularly loved the…

Vicky, an American student spending the summer in Barcelona, is grounded, practical and analytical, perhaps to a fault. Her best friend, Cristina, is a flighty and impulsive romantic who is constantly dissatisfied and longing for something she can't articulate. If you're unclear on either of these points, Vicky Cristina Barcelona will underline them, through the the dialogue and voiceover narration, about five thousand times. That irritated me more than it did the last time I saw it, but otherwise I still enjoy Vicky Cristina Barcelona a great deal. Cristina doesn't quite work as a character, not because of Scarlett Johansson but because the part is a bit underwritten - she's representing half of a dichotomy rather than a fully fleshed-out…

Devotees of Woody Allen know by now that his quality rate is way out of kilter these days and that any film decreed a return to form simply means 'interesting and watchable' as opposed to reaching the dizzying heights of Manhattan or Annie Hall etc.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona has enough vibrancy helped by a young and beautiful cast to rank as one of his most interesting and watchable of these recent efforts, helped by the story being set in such an exotic locale. Indeed Barcelona is integral as is the principal casting of Bardem and Cruz In whose mouths the typically heightened bulky dialogue that Woody inflicts on his characters (seriously no one ever speaks like a Woody Allen character)…

A lot more playful, adventurous and fervent than I expected from Woody this late in his career. If anything, the characters were too large for life and felt a bit... flaky at times. But, I guess that can't be helped to some extent when you are trying to develop characters with such polarised mindsets on love and relationships.

The co-dependant lovers dynamic was interesting, and I can't really think of any other film that handled it so well. For some raisin The Dreamers comes to mind, but that was horrible. I think it would have been easy to get carried away with the situation, but there was a good balance between the passion and the practicality of it all.

Having…

31st entry in the 100 movies in June challenge.

"I just have to come face to face with the fact that I'm not gifted. I can appreciate art and I love music but... it's sad really because I feel like I have a lot to express and I'm not gifted."

Man, I wish I were Woody Allen so I could holiday around Europe making movies with cool actors. He's pretty great at writing for actresses as well (Hannah and Her Sisters is possibly my favourite of his films), and there's no Allen-substitute character here which is a bonus. I'm not crazy about the use of a narrator, but often it worked really well, allowing the film to cover a large…

I am not a fan of Woody Allen or his work and at first I was hating this movie, especially the voice that narrated what was going on; and at some points the music got irritating as well. The story was not very interesting and I was not into any of the characters until Penelope Cruz appeared half way through the film and saved the movie. Her character is so complex and strange, but at the same time she evokes a certain beauty and that is why you realize how she fits in to all the prior dialogue about how Javier Bardems character was so in love with her and understood all about their love-hate relationship. Cruz is excellent in…