Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen)

Two best friends - the careful and cautious Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and the footloose and fancy free Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) take a holiday together in Barcelona. Vicky is engaged to be married to the nice but dull Doug and is studying Catalan culture while Cristina is confused about her life and recovering from another break-up. During their visit they meet painter Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) who invites them both to a weekend of sex and food. The pair soon become messed up in the lives of Juan Antonio and his mentally unhinged ex wife Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz).
The thing I loved most about the movie was it's views on sex and relationships. It's so refreshing to see a story where women can openly have sex without being looked down upon. The girls, including Vicky's distant relative (Patricia Clarkson), are intelligent woman and make decisions based on their desires as well as their better judgements. Vicky is sensible in her life, picking a lovely fiance and good life, but her desires for Juan Antonio surprise her while Cristina is happy to experiment with whatever life throws at her. Juan Antonio himself is a definite lampooning of the archetypal Latin lover, even down to the red silk shirt. Bardem is clearly having a lot of fun playing the seductive painter. It's an incredibly sexy film - with a cast that gorgeous, how could it not be? Seduction and sex are important to the story and show how big a part they play in the building and destruction of love. Fidelity and commitment are ignored in favour of living for your emotions. Not a concept I particularly agree with but it makes for interesting viewing.
Rebecca Hall gets all the good lines, the sort Allen would usually reserve for himself. They're so much funnier when said by a level headed and usually careful woman. Johansson isn't an actress I particularly like, she has never done anything to back up the praise she has received over the years. She is beautiful and does Cristina's fickle desires well but compared to Hall, who shines, there's not much to say. The real star of the show is the scene stealing Maria Elena, played with feverish panache by Penelope Cruz. Her moods change at the flip of a coin, she is highly unpredictable but wholly sexy and seductive. Cruz doesn't so much set the screen on fire as flamethrow it!
Filmed through a tourist's eyes, Allen's 4th film outside of USA and his first in Spain delights in capturing the Spain you see on postcards, with particular concentration paid to Gaudi's architecture. He knows beauty when he sees it. The narration is pretty annoying, though I see why it was used. It speeds things along and lets you get to the good bits. It's not a serious movie, although Allen occasionally slips in his philosophising about relationships. It's fun, frothy and sexy.
For an interesting take on relationships, I'd definately recommend Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Cruz's turn is definately Oscar grabbing stuff and for sheer beauty, you can't beat it.