April 16, 2009

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Title: Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Year: 2008
Director: Woody Allen
Writer: Woody Allen
Starring: Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Christopher Evan Welch
Music: non-original music
Distinctions: Oscar for best supporting actress (Cruz)
Synopsis: two girls spending the summer in Spain fall for a polyamorous artist
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for concept and story) c. 3.1/4 (Very good).

Good movie, despite being an offender of my worst pet peeve: having Something to Say rather than having a story to tell. It's entertaining and dramatic, but at the end it just kind of stops and leaves the characters where they started. I don't know why it's labeled as a comedy or dramedy; there is no attempt at getting laughs. Maybe because it's a Woody Allen movie, so people expect comedy.

3 comments:

  1. I think it could be labeled as a "dramedy" because Penélope Cruz's role offers some comedic relief, especially in the lines she spouts out in Spanish. I certainly didn't burst into laughter at any point while watching the film, but I found myself giggling under my breath a few times.

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  2. Yeah, that makes sense. Personally, I see a pretty big difference between "dramedy" and "drama with some comedic relief," but I suppose it's hardly a well-defined term.

    It's interesting: I could imagine a different director filming this exact script, even these exact performances, but making an unambiguously serious drama.

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  3. I agree that this could have, by a different director, been "an unambiguously serious drama." I felt kind of depressed after watching the film, so the attempts at comic relief didn't help too much.

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