performance: 3 women

It should come as no surprise that Woody Allen has a thing for women. Not just any kind of woman. She lands somewhere in between impossibly glamorous, whip smart, and a complete trainwreck. Thankfully Allen has sidestepped his leading man status the past couple of films and instead allowed his eye for the most beautiful of the beautiful to do the convincing. Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, and Penelope Cruz are the new babes on the Allen block and what each brings to their roles in his latest romp, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" is something old and new in the canon of Allen's work. A tale of two women spending a summer abroad becomes an interesting study in impetuousness versus cautiousness, real love versus idealized love, control versus power, and accepting one's fate versus attempting to catapult it in a different direction. Big themes for an Allen comedy, but he is in his waning years, so these issues with where one fits in the world suggests that an artist is at a new and interesting place in their career. For one of the few (if not a complete rarity) filmmakers in the world making films every year over the past few decades, what does Allen have left to say? Rather beautifully and hilariously, Allen lets his trio of actresses do the talking.

Thanks to a handy voice-over crisply supplied by Christopher Evan Welch, Vicky (Hall) and Cristina (Johansson) are immediately established as opposites. Aside from their physical difference (Vicky is all brunette wisps of hair and tall, angular features where as Cristina is nothing but curves and cascades of sunny blonde waves), Vicky is the controlled, rational, level-headed one that knows exactly what she wants, but Cristina is still searching for meaning in her life and does so by making spontaneous, impulsive decisions. Both women are approached at a cafe one evening by a debonair painter (Bardem), who offers to spend a weekend with him, where upon they would make love, drink good wine, and do as the bohemian and cultured do in Spain. Through some coaxing and more wine, the women decide to go with their Dan Jaun, but as fate would have it, their outcomes from the weekend are as opposite as their appearances and outlook on life.

Hall, especially shines in a role that becomes more and more complex as the film grows. Vicky is engaged to be married to a bland corporate lawyer, whom she thought she loved, but was it the idea of being married, successful, and complete, the thing that she was in love with or was it true love she felt for her fiancée? Hall does something that very few new actors in the Allen factory are capable and confident enough to do, turn in a compelling performance. Allen is notorious for his anti-direction, thereby causing his actors to sink or swim in self-directed performance hell or heaven. Hall is the neurotic Allen heroine, but she restrains the ticks and isms so commonly and lazily associated with the Allen gesture and patois that has damned him and canonized him. Her neurosis is actually accessible and not a caricature, something that gives substantial weight to an Allen film and adds to the theory that maybe Allen is still wondering if this is all there is for him. For one reason or another, Johansson has become the go-to girl for the critics to lacerate for her obvious sensuality and questionable talents. Johansson is young and still finding her footing for what kinds of roles suit her and it's clear she has a certain brand of sexuality that burns on the screen, but I'm still waiting for a consistently satisfying performance that she so seemingly and perfectly pulled off in Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation." Perhaps every film should open with a shot of Johansson in her panties to get her sex appeal out of the way, and then supply her with ample room to give an exciting performance. This isn't to say she is not as good as her co-stars in this film, but Allen has found something in her that hopefully when truly developed will become something unforgettable. As Cristina she plays youthful hedonism to a tee, the other side of the brain that has Allen craving his youth and perhaps wishing his purpose was purposelessness, an aimlessness that will never extinguish. And then there's Penelope, who also hasn't until recently found the right kind of films and roles that audiences and critics are embracing. I thought she was just right as the HIV afflicted pregnant nun in Pedro Almodovar's "All About My Mother" and once again due to Almodovar, gave audiences range, maturity, and assuredness in his last film, "Volver." In this story of women finding themselves, Cruz has found herself and represents a combination of a life that is rife with passion and intellect, but never quite finds an appropriate or sane balance. Maria Elena (Cruz) gets a great introduction as a character about mid way through the film. Fresh from the hospital, where she was treated for attempted suicide, her ex-husband, Juan Antonio (Bardem) escorts her into his home to meet his new lover, Cristina. With her mascara dramatically dripping down her gorgeous face and a touch of desperation and madness in her voice, Maria Elena is the embodiment of a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. An actress can't ask for more and Cruz goes for broke in this role, digging into its darkness, but revealing a comedic skill along the way. From her combustive arguments with Juan Antonio in the streets of Barcelona to the emotional, almost sexual way she paints, Maria Elena is unlike any Allen creation in recent memory. If this role isn't already proof of Cruz's talents, then she might have to play ugly, but if it were that easy, this beauty would have done that long ago.

"Vicky Cristina Barcelona" is such a light, amusing affair that it leaves its audience with an appreciative feeling that Allen is not conducting a death march with gloom and doom fare. How can a man not still enjoy life in all its vexing, perplexing, and surprisingly fascinating and fulfilling ways when he makes a sexy comedy set during a balmy, breezy summer in Spain? The only minor quibble I had with the film is more of a wish fulfillment issue. Seeing all three actresses in one frame would have been quite the sight. All three bright young things of varying ages, ethnicities, and talents all share the common thread of not only being the object of Juan Antonio's affections, but the audience's as well.