Javier Bardem, Patricia Clarkson, Penelope Cruz

Vicky and Cristina, two young American tourists, spend a summer in Spain and meet a flamboyant artist and his beautiful, but insane, ex-wife. Vicky is straight-laced and about to be married. Cristina ...( read more  read more... )is a sexually adventurous free spirit. When they all become amorously entangled, both comedic and harrowing results ensue.

Flixster Users

74% liked it

34,239 ratings

Critics

82% liked it

184 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 36 min.

Directed by: Woody Allen

Release Date: May 17, 2008

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DVD Release Date: January 27, 2009

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Flixster Reviews (9,977)


  • October 29, 2009
    I tried really hard to dislike this artsy romance - incredibly sexy people agonising about love and life's purpose. Bardem's character in particular suavely talks his way into all the womens' beds but I couldn't help but like him ........bastard. Its so detached from any sense of...( read more) reality and yet in Hall's character captures that restless spirit in many logical controlling squares. My head says tat but my heart ........
  • October 1, 2009
    Not one of Woody Allen's best but certainly not his worst! Actually, I quite liked it. He picket a great cast (well half a great cast) and kept it simple and beautiful. The main annoyance I have with this film is the voice over/narration. Its lazy and unnecessary but the pretenti...( read more)ous over 60's in the audience loved it!
  • August 15, 2009
    The one thing I wasn't thrilled about was the narrator. He was kinda cheesy and distracting at times. Cruz was amazing in this, and I typically don't care for her.
  • August 7, 2009
    A Hillarious woody-allen sex-romp. But really it's Penelope Cruz's show in a career best perfromance as the crazy ex-wife Maria Elena.
  • July 19, 2009
    Finally a Woody Allen film I enjoyed! Vicky Cristina Barcelona is an enjoyable comedy with great cinematography and even the narrator is quite humorous. Bardem shines, Johansson and Hall play their respective roles nicely, and Cruz just steels the show. Worth a view just to se...( read more)e Maria Elena as portrayed by Cruz.
  • November 7, 2009
    I really enjoyed this! A refreshing and interesting love comedy that didn't try to force some kind of message or answer the many questions it raised. Penelope Cruz was a hoot every time she was on screen. Plus, I love Barcelona, so it helps that the film showed many sights of the...( read more) city.
  • November 6, 2009
    Penso di averlo visto nel momento sbagliato e con l'umore sbagliato.
    Ai tempi non mi era piaciuto molto, al momento invece lo rivedrei volentieri (e in lingua originale, dannaz)
  • November 3, 2009
    Woody Allen's sensual, bittersweet dramedy has all the dramatic heft of a feather and yet is utterly absorbing to watch. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) are two young American students at liberty for the summer in Barcelona, Spain. Vicky is a straight-laced...( read more) "Catalan studies" major who has no idea what she's going "do with that" for certain. She is happily engaged to Doug (Chris Messina), a fairly boring and safe young man who seems like he could provide for her, even if it won't make her happy. On the other hand, Cristina is the sexually vivacious, impulsive and brash, yet self-effacing, student filmmaker who "just wrote, directed and starred in a 12-minute short film she hates." Vicky's relatives, Judy (Patricia Clarkson) and Mark (Kevin Dunn) are keeping an eye on them as they spend their time drinking in the local flavor - the sights, sounds and textures of Barcelona. However, one night, at an art opening, Cristina is intrigued by a dark, handsome stranger in a red shirt. At dinner later, Vicky and Cristina are approached by this very man: Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem, doing a complete 180 after his Oscar-winning turn as a scary psychopath in the Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men"), a sexy painter who approaches them with a proposition - they will fly with him in one hour to a nearby town, have dinner, drink wine and then the three of them will make love. Vicky is appalled at this suave would-be Don Juan's advances, but Cristina is intrigued and soon the three of them are on a small plane in a thunder storm. Soon, these three will be entangled in a complex, emotionally tricky menage a trois (though not physically) which involves Vicky balancing a night of passion with Juan Antonio and her rational feelings for her fiancee, Cristina's own head-over-heels attraction to Juan Antonio and his attempts to have a good time without hurting anyone. Then enters the firecracker into this scenario: Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) is the beautiful, but psychotically jealous, volatile and high-strung ex-wife of Juan Antonio who still deeply loves him but whose relationship with him "doesn't work." For reasons passing understanding, Juan Antonio invites her to sleep off a drastic measure on her part and soon she and he are sharing Cristina's affections, all the while Vicky stews in unrequited attraction and awaits a prison sentence in her marriage to Doug. Woody Allen, who wrote and directed, has made a specialty in his career over the past 30 plus years of painting portraits of intelligent, literate and well-spoken characters' travails in life and in love, and this is no different. However, by moving his story to the beautiful landscapes of Spain, and thanks in no small part to the adept visual stylings of cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe ("Talk to Her," "Goya's Ghosts"), this is the best-made Allen film in years, if not decades. Although the characters are the sorts of mid-level neurotics and would-be intellectuals that Allen loves to focus on, and although their dialogue sounds like that of Woody Allen's characters, this is like an Almodovar film - through a glass, lightly. If I had a major qualm, it was with the dry, superfluous narration of Christopher Evan Welch, who is detatched from the action and who seems to serve no purpose. There is no grand point, nor a great amount of laughs, but the film is not without a scintilla of humor, some solid, some sly and subtle, and is wonderful to watch and listen to. By summer's end, all the characters have at least been moved by the emotional weigh station they've just passed through, although dramatic changes may not be in the cards. They're all a bit wiser, with a new experience to learn from and draw on, and maybe they're better people for it.



    NOTE: The flywheels at the MPAA have rated this PG-13, perhaps appropriately, yet it manages to be the most sensual and seductive non-R-rated film I can remember. Winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (Cruz) and the Independent Spirit Awards for Best Screenplay and Supporting Female (Cruz). Nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead (Bardem).
  • October 31, 2009
    !Comercial or Stupid! :|
  • October 29, 2009
    Pensavo che Woody Allen non sarebbe stato capace di tirar fuori una commedia romantica così riuscita. Bella la dicotomia delle due protagoniste, apparentemente così diverse ma poi? Dall'apparenza alla realtà tutto si mescola si intreccia quindi ciò che non si pensa... Avviene, ed...( read more) è questa lo sorpresa di del film che, insieme alla voce narrante,al setting, alla musica spagnola e il cast perfetto sembra tutto un gioco x esaltare la vicenda, alla fine semplice senza pretese, ma ben diretta e che convince. Bell'interprestazione di Penelope Cruz.

Critic Reviews


February 5, 2009
Nigel Andrews, The Financial Times

The erotic roundelays are so witty - Marivaux with sex - that I am now afraid to see a future Allen film. It will either be bad, returning us to the natural order of things, or good like this, demandi... full review

October 18, 2008
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

When great artists maintain their health and energy into their 70s, amazing things can happen -- and they're happening with Woody Allen. full review

October 18, 2008
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is fitfully good. full review

October 1, 2008
Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com

As usual, Allen works simply and quickly getting the most out of his rich and wry screenplay, a witty dissertation of the left turns our love lives can so easily take. full review

September 3, 2008
Mike McGranaghan, The Aisle Seat

Vicky Cristina Barcelona comes closer than anything to exploring Allen's famous quote (made in a time of personal scandal), "the heart wants what it wants." full review

August 15, 2008
Claudia Puig, USA Today

As exhilarating, captivating and enjoyable as a summer romance in an exotic city. full review

August 15, 2008
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

He is a little like Eric Rohmer here. The actors are attractive, the city is magnificent, the love scenes don't get all sweaty, and everybody finishes the summer a little wiser and with a lifetime of ... full review

August 15, 2008
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

Watching Allen fart out a story when he has no characters is always painful. full review

August 15, 2008
Michael Sragow, The Baltimore Sun

[Allen's] most entertaining picture since Bullets Over Broadway or maybe Sweet and Lowdown. full review

August 15, 2008
Kimberly Jones, Austin Chronicle

Something is terribly amiss when the American actors sound like English is their second language. full review

View more Vicky Cristina Barcelona reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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Vicky Cristina Barcelona Trivia


  • What is Cristina like in Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona ?  Answer »
  • Where does Cristina see Jean Antonio in Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona ?  Answer »
  • Where did Cristina and Vicky see Jean Antonio again in Vicky , Cristina, Barcelona ?  Answer »
  • Where does Juan Antonio want to take Vicky and Cristina in Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona ?  Answer »

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