I am not a Woody Allen fan. I liked Sweet and Lowdown but I just could not appreciate Annie Hall or Purple Rose of Cairo or Broadway Danny Rose . . . and I have so many more to watch on the list. Ugh.
I didn't dislike VCB the way I dislike those listed above. This definitely isn't an Allen Allen film. He's not in it and it doesn't focus on his particular neuroses the whole film. That said, I still didn't like it. My dislike is more a product of the quality of acting. Scarlett Johansson (Christina) and Rebecca Hall (Vicky) fell superbly flat in my opinion. There is a conversation between the two in a restaurant before, during, and after Javier Bardeem (Juan Antonio) approaches them that was so stilted it was painful to watch. Women just don't talk in those cadences. The words may be the same but the performances were terrible. I also really bristled at the voiceover narration. It was condescending and obvious and really didn't add anything to the film. I understand the irony and postmodernism and blah blah blah of the narration and the fact that the narrator holds a great deal of disdain for all of the characters but, ugh, I was just annoyed.
Javier Bardeem is good but the only thing that redeems the movie in the least for me is Penelope Cruz. I don't hold a particular liking for her but in this film she is absolutely genius. Genius. The best work I've seen of her. I can't describe it well but when she's on screen, she somehow enlivens the other performances. The movie is worth seeing just for Cruz.
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