Fast-paced, witty and an interesting commentary about the unpredictable nature of hidden desires, this is arguably Woody Allen's best work in more than a decade. The 72-year-old writer and filmmaker has also achieved a box office hit with this $15 million movie that has grossed $75 million worldwide.
Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlet Johansson) visit Barcelona in summer, staying with Vicky's distant relative Judy (Patricia Clarkson) and her husband, Mark Nash (Kevin Dunn). The visitors become enamored of a brash and sensuous painter (a funny Javier Bardem).
They are intrigued by rumours that he tried to kill his ex wife -- or was it she was tried to kill him? As they separately have affairs with him, they never suspect that his ex-wife may suddenly turn up, resulting in some menace and a lot of fun.
The highlight of the film is Penelope Cruz playing the hysterical ex-wife. She has about 20 of the 100 minutes in the film but she dominates the proceedings once she arrives on the scene in the last quarter.
There was a time when Woody Allen used to dote on Manhattan in his films, especially in Hannah And Her Sisters. But in the last decade he has been making films in the United Kingdom and Spain. He has made Barcelona, which offers most of the new film's background, one of the central characters in the film.
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