Balmy as Barcelona!

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is set in vibrant Spain. The locale is warm, balmy and throbbing with a fervor which resonates perfectly with the characters and the narrative. The two protagonists are best friends, poles apart in their opinion of love and desire. Maybe we all have these polar opposites within us, inkling us to examine our transient desires.

Here the two friends meet the Juan Antonio Gonzalo, a brazen artist whose multifaceted personality appeals to both women. What follows is a pandemonium of relationships, the good, the bad and the ugly, and everything in between.

Woody Allen beautifully packages the kook inside all artists, their utter lack of inhibitions and nonconformist living. Penelope Cruz as Maria Elena is the artistic genius with passion pulsating in her veins. She is convincing as a zealot who lives her life on her terms notwithstanding its detrimental tempestuousness. Scarlett Johansson exhibits the birdlike fluttering nervousness typical of Woody Allen. I like this film better than any other Woody Allen production, maybe because it appealed to me for its radical, rebellious artistic mavericks and the passionate lives they lead.

Moral of the story, it is essentially human nature to be unsatisfied and be haunted by “what ifs...” The search for “something else” is a harsh reality some admit, others mask in normalcy and routine.

Juan Antonio very ironically says “Only unfulfilled love can be romantic................”