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Vicky Cristina Barcelona
EMAILPRINTThe Weinstein Company

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 36 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 105 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama | Romance
Written by: Woody Allen
Directed by: Woody Allen
Release Date:
Theatrical: August 15, 2008
DVD: January 27, 2009
Running Time: 96 minutes, Color
Origin: USA | Spain
Language(s): Catalan | English | Spanish
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for mature thematic material involving sexuality, and smoking
Starring Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Rebecca Hall, Javier Bardem, Chris Messina, Patricia Clarkson, and Kevin Dunn
Two young American women, Vicky and Cristina come to Barcelona for a summer holiday. Vicky is sensible and engaged to be married; Cristina is emotionally and sexually adventurous. In Barcelona, they’re drawn into a series of unconventional romantic entanglements with Juan Antonio, a charismatic painter, who is still involved with his tempestuous ex-wife Maria Elena. Set against the luscious Mediterranean sensuality of Barcelona, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is Woody Allen’s funny and open-minded celebration of love in all its configurations. (The Weinstein Company)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The film's freedom and control, its inspiration and focus, announce it as the work of a confident and mature artist.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
It's a summery idyll: his most entertaining picture since "Bullets Over Broadway" (1994) or maybe "Sweet and Lowdown" (1999).
Read Full Review >Village Voice Scott Foundas
Allen has crafted a wry and thoughtful film about the peculiar stirrings of the heart that is certainly his most accomplished piece of work since 2005's "Match Point" and arguably his funniest in the eight years since "Small Time Crooks."
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Smoking, shouting, practically shooting off sparks, Cruz spreads a wildfire sexuality across Allen's sunny tableau of Catalan country picnics and scenic Barcelona ramblings.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
As exhilarating, captivating and enjoyable as a summer romance in an exotic city.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
After years of diminishing returns, Woody Allen spectacularly returns to form with Vicky Cristina Barcelona, his funniest movie in years and arguably his sexiest.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Through it all, Vicky Cristina Barcelona remains unaccountably romantic, a confirmation that love, elusive and painful as it can be, is still worth pursuing.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
Allen can be literal-minded about his thematic polarities, but, in this movie, he has put actors with first-class temperament on the screen, and his writing is both crisp and ambivalent: he works everything out with a stringent thoroughness that still allows room for surprise.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Offers potent romantic fantasy elements for men and women and a cast that should produce the best commercial returns for a Woody Allen film since "Match Point."
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
Ought to have been an eye-roller. What a surprise that it's so seductive. The Woodman lives!
Read Full Review >Washington Post Dan Zak
Vicky Cristina Barcelona is beautiful because Allen is now decidedly in control of this phase of his career, which blends the sharpness of his older dramas with a newly acquired expatriate hipness.
Read Full Review >Empire Ian Freer
Within Allen’s recent output, Vicky Cristina is the highlight. See it for beautiful locales, an ambivalent look at human relationships and a clutch of great performances, especially from Cruz.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The two most hilarious characters, played by Spain's two most famous actors, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, are nothing if not cliches about tempestuous Latin lovers. But, boy, does Allen have fun with those cliches.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Cruz, who has never been able to fully show what she's capable of as an actress in an English-language film, takes to the role of the dark-haired hellcat with a sexy, bewitching fury.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
With all this going for it, Vicky Cristina Barcelona should be better than it is. But there's something intriguing going on here. It's a movie about the sacrifices that people make to be happy.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The actors are attractive, the city is magnificent, the love scenes don't get all sweaty, and everybody finishes the summer a little wiser and with a lifetime of memories. What more could you ask?
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Gotham gives way to Gaudi and the Met to Miro, but the sensibility is the same, the city as a precious treasure, and so is the message: Life may be hard and short, love may be flawed or doomed, but, my, aren't we blessed with lovely distractions.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Sincere, delicately funny, a little staid, a little precious, and more interested in the ebb and flow of the heart than in the dubious rewards of sensational narrative twists.
Read Full Review >Premiere Eric Kohn
Allen does craft a fairly observant account of human behavior, so that the solemn aspects don't put a damper on the humor, or vice versa.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
I enjoyed it as much as any Allen film of the last 20 years.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Although Vicky Cristina trips along winningly, carried by the beauty of its locations and stars -- and all the gauzy romanticism those enchanted places and people imply -- it reverberates with implacable melancholy, a sense of loss.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman
The narration, aided by a terrific score, does streamline the storytelling, and adds to it a faintly sardonic top note.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Matthew Sorrento
Let's not kid ourselves: There's something about Javi.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The writing is zippy, the story spins like a top, and Bardem turns out to be the wittiest of leading men.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
There's a terrific movie buried in Woody Allen's tale of two American girls broadening their horizons in Barcelona, and every once in a while tantalizing glimpses penetrate the twee narration and mannered performances.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
An atypical Allen film. Some of his usual themes are present - in particular, his neuroses about sex and love - but this movie does not bear enough Allen hallmarks to single it out as his work.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Bardem's performance is so good it tends to mask how lacking much of what surrounds it is.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
It's literally difficult to believe that the person who made this picturesque, clueless, oddly misanthropic picture also made "Annie Hall" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors."
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
There are two stormy performances from Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz that elevate Allen's melancholy thoughts on love and relationships.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
Something is terribly amiss when the American actors sound like English is their second language.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Allen's laziness is startling, even in so mechanical a filmmaker. He uses a monotonous narrator to tell us what the characters think and do, though he then shows them performing the actions that have just been described.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Watching Allen fart out a story when he has no characters is always painful, as people are defined through clumsy expository dialogue and ranked according to their cultural accomplishments. But the script here is lazy even by his standards.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 105 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chrisa gave it a10:
I really enjoyed this film. It was simply romantic & funny . The actors beautiful and I liked that it did not have sweaty sex scenes.
Carlos F. gave it a9:
It's a film to love or hate because it's a very complex film, reflecting the complexity of human relationships. Johanson and Cruz are amasing here. And the way Barcelona is shot is visually beautiful. Woody Allen is a master.
Sumit D. gave it a10:
An excellent film about how we love. The romanticism of picturesque locales and beautiful people in a film that, despite being sent in the 21st echos an almost Renaissance-esque devotion to cultural achievement and academic pursuits. The film ends on a slightly melancholy note but on the whole is an extremely satisfying picture.
rahley gave it a1:
I preferred this movie when it was called The Dreamers.
David C. gave it a1:
The voiceover narration and dialogue are so painfully stupid, I actually could not watch more than a half hour of the film. Horrible, simply horrible.
Donald S. gave it a0:
Pointless and boring. Woody Allen should hang it up. His creative talent is gone, and he should be, too.
Ala D. gave it a9:
Great, clear, funny.
