Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

B+

Allen actually lets his characters have conversations with each other.

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09/05/08

N/A

A delightful though somewhat predictable Woody Allen farce is enlivened by its beautiful Barcelona locations and the performances of Cruz and Bardem (who brings heart to the stereotypical Latin lover character).

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09/04/08

3/4

Vicky Cristina Barcelona comes closer than anything to exploring Allen's famous quote (made in a time of personal scandal), "the heart wants what it wants."

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09/03/08

3.5/5

Let's not kid ourselves: There's something about Javi.

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08/30/08

B

This is a strong film in many ways even if it's not a great one.

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08/29/08

3.5/4

Allen's camera seems liberated by the sunny locations; the director seems to enjoy Gaudi's architecture almost as much as Johansson's.

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08/29/08

4.5/5

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a reassuring return to form that qualifies as his smartest, most lyrical and all-around best film in a decade.

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08/29/08

N/A

Woody Allen's best film in years... talk about damning with faint praise. Vicky Cristina Barcelona is hardly a return to form, but it'll do.

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08/28/08

N/A

Woody Allen's 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' smolders with the best of them. It's also one of Allen's most finely crafted films.

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08/26/08

4.5/5

Allen's recent product doesn't always pay off with quite so much colorful whimsy and incisive irony but, with this beautifully crafted piece of work it's clear he's on a role.

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08/25/08

C

Long ago, Allen became interested in "the artist" only as a theme and rhetorical figure. The actual making of art, whether as his subject or as embodied by his own films, no longer grips him. It may actually bore him.

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08/22/08

4/4

Allen stages a late-career coup, placing his finely sketched characters in an ideal milieu of comedy, romance and madness.

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08/22/08

2/4

[Allen] brings the angst of his Manhattan characters to Spain, and tries to blend them into a story that has Almodóvar overtones, but Almodóvar, does them much better

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08/21/08

7/10

A pleasing and fairly smart film that reveals an unexpected willingness on Allen's part to finally stretch beyond endless copying of the triumphs of his middle-age.

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08/20/08

4/5

One of the year's most charming and sly works -- as well as perhaps the saddest film in the filmmaker's entire oeuvre.

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08/20/08

9/10

How could one not admire a script that has one of the characters talk about her friend's 'turgid categorical imperative' without blinking an eye?

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08/19/08

N/A

What fresh young talent directed this terrific film? You will walk out saying: Who played Vicky?

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08/19/08

4/4

A thought-provoking cautionary tale juxtaposing blind adherence to American Puritanical values against some more open-minded alternative ways of relating.

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08/18/08