Viewed in
2010
Formats
HD TV
Premise
Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson play two American tourists wooed by a Spanish painter, Javier Bardem, who happens to have a loco ex-wife, Penelope Cruz.
Liked
Conversations about love, comedic performances.
Disliked
The unneeded narrator.
Thoughts
It was fun and sexy.
I enjoyed how romantic the film was, with tons of gorgeous people visiting lovely Spanish locations, talking about love, and occasionally making love. With hot bodies like Cruz and Johansson, the twelve-year old boy in me wished it was rated R. Instead, the sexual intensity came from conversations, flirtations, and overall charm of the characters. Bardem was surprisingly suave and warm, a far cry from his bone-chilling performance in No Country for Old Men. Meanwhile, Cruz's scene-stealing presence of crazy sexiness made me wish for more from her limited role. Relatively unknown Rebecca Hall was subtly excellent as a lady with a cerebral approach to romance. Do not be fooled by the posters; the heart of the story was about Johansson, Bardem, and Hall, not the first two and Cruz.
As I was enjoying the film, I was very surprised by how unlike Woody Allen it was. Instead of quirky neurotic chatterboxes, he created a patient romantic exploration into the themes of love, such as meaning of marriage, lust, living happily ever after, and lastly, fears of love. Allen pulled this off by having two female leads with different philosophies bumping into the same guy, and let the consequences play out. Thanks to plot and character, the conversations were insightful, thoughtful, yet never dragged the pace down. My favorite moments were the hilarious three-way battles between Cruz, Bardem and Johansson's characters.
My main complaint would be the use of narrator. All the exposition seemed to be well explained visually. My guess was Allen could not help to insert his snarky remarks somewhere. And I have to admit I enjoyed the narrator's energy and occasional sarcasm.
This was one of Woody Allen's better films in recent memory. It was entertaining and tickled my intellectual fancies about something completely irrational: love.
Note: I recommend subtitles, as Bardem's accent was occasionally too strong.
What I would change
Nothing.
