Woody Allen's 2008 feature centers on two women, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and her best friend Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) who travel to Spain to spend two months staying with Vicky's aunt Judy (Patricia Clarkson) before Vicky's planed wedding to the reliable Doug (Chris Messina) in the fall. While in Spain the two friends encounter the roughish artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) whose seductive ways cause both women to question what they really want in a man. In fact Juan Antonio seems perhaps inadvertently skilled at unhinging women, as further demonstrated by his volatile ex wife Elena (Penélope Cruz, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this role).
This is not the kind of subject matter I'm usually inclined towards, and the decisions made by some characters in this film made me feel further inclined not to like it. However the quality of the piece, especially the acting and writing, won me over. There is some serious literary merit here, and the film does a very fine job of wrestling with some ambiguous and contradictory elements of human character, especially as they concern love and relationships. Like Crimes and Misdemeanors and Match Point a major theme in this movie is getting away with something you know your shouldn't, and the effect that has on a person. Given some of the things that director writer Woody Allen has been charged with over the years, its interesting that this is a subject he keeps revisiting, but even the reason for that is ambiguous. ***1/2
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