Cannes Review: VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA

Matt here... Eugenio is currently out enjoying the Sun in Cannes and has been sending us some of his thoughts from the festival. First off, he got to see Woody Allen's latest movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona and sent us this very early review which you can read after the image...

Not surprisingly, Woody Allen decided to open his new film out of competition here at Cannes - the director hates attending and receiving prizes. But the film was nevertheless very well received here at the festival and it is undoubtedly his most crowd pleasing and accessible film for years. A story of two girls finding love and questioning their own approach to life, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" follows closely the template of Allen's recent Melinda and Melinda in examining and contrasting the different psychologies of two women. Its mix of tragedy and comedy, and a very heavy use of voiceovers, is also very reminiscent of the 2004 film. Both Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) travel to Barcelona for some change from their New York setting and are soon involved with passionate artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) who can't forget the tempestuos marriage he had with fellow artist Maria Helena (Penelope Cruz). The usual exchange of partnerships and philosophising on life follows, alleviated by Allen's spot-on one liners. Of a very impressive set of performances, Brit Rebecca Hall stands out as a discovery, playing the hardest part as the more sober and slightly uptight Vicky. For such a young actress she pulls off the feat with conviction. Like the films of his London period, Vicky Cristina Barcelona indulges a bit too much on the stereotypes of the city it is based on, with passionate Spaniards, plenty of Gaudi architecture, and reliance on folkloric guitar music, but it maintains a more subtle tone than recent Allen films like Match Point or the disappointing Scoop. As always with the films of Woody Allen it is the script that triumphs - somehow the heavy use of voice over is always spot on. The soul searching and frustrated generalizations of romantic dialogue are here particularly well handled, never seeming over the top and ringing true most times. The film should be well received when it goes out on commercial release, being the most charming and funniest film its incredibly prolific director has done since the late 1990's. The film is out on September 5th 2008 in the U.S. and currently has no U.K. distribution deal.