Episode 96:
In which we discuss: Transsiberian, Elegy, a new top 5, DVD picks and plenty of off-kilter tangents.
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Director: Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me, The Secret Life of Words, Paris je’Taime)
Novel: Philip Roth
Screenplay: Nicholas Meyer
Producers: Andre Lamal, Gary Lucchesi, Tom Rosenberg
Starring: Ben Kingsley, Penelope Cruz, Dennis Hopper, Patricia Clarkson, Peter Sarsgaard
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 108 min
I spend a lot of time defending Penelope Cruz against the haters. It makes it so much easier for me and I’m so much more delighted when she performs in a role of which the quality is very easy to defend. So goes it with her two current theatrical releases: Woody Allen’s Vicky Christina Barcelona (our review) and the topic of discussion here, Elegy. But let’s be honest, while Cruz shines amazingly bright here, the quality of this film goes way beyond just her. In fact, there are a few moments when Cruz’ beauty and magnetism are actually a bit distracting. But first things first…
David (Kingsley) is college professor known for his proclivities to sleeping with young students. His current conquest is Consuela (Cruz). But Consuela becomes more to him than just a one night stand. He begins to develop deeper feelings for her which are returned. Thus begins a tumultuous period for David. On one hand he is happier than he’s ever been with someone who makes him feel alive, and on the other he’s with a woman 30+ years his younger which he knows can’t possibly work out. Despite the advice from his best friend (Dennis Hopper) and the despair he feels for lying to his lover of twenty years (Clarkson), he continues the relationship down a darker and darker path.
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Episode 95:
In which Mr. Matt Gamble of Wherethelongtailends.com joins the fray to help discuss Tropic Thunder, some more Woody Allen, a new top ten list and other goodies and tangents.
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Episode 94:
In which we catch up on all sorts of movie talk including Pineapple Express and everything else we’ve seen in the past three weeks. Plus DVD picks and Joss Whedon talk. Sweet.
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In Bernardo Bertolucci‘s The Sheltering Sky, John Malkovich and Deborah Winger explain the philosophical difference between a Traveler and a Tourist, the former going all the way, immersing himself in the experience, the latter (spoken derisively) opting for the sites and gently drifting along before going home. Woody Allen, and the American ladies whose names form the title of his latest film, Vicky Christina Barcelona, are most definitely tourists. That is not to say that the film is as dreadful as some of Allen‘s recent work (Match Point being a notable exception in this century). It is really quite a lot of fun, a breezy cinematic truffle that plays very much like Woody‘s Spanish vacation, filming a lot of the picturesque sites of Barcelona as well as the island of Oviedo.
The film’s ho-hum first half hour introduces the attractive Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Christina (current muse Scarlett Johansson in her third outing with Allen) as they are arriving in Barcelona for an extended summer stay. This is done in one of the most grating voice-overs in recent memory, the purpose of which seems to exist to either add bits of exposition and flavour that were not organically integrated into the script (perchance a result of Allen popping out a film a year) or simply make the film feel like it is moving forward while Vicky and Christina sit in cabs or take pictures in the various marketplaces. While the ladies are dining together in a cafe, Juan Antonio, a well known local painter, known as much for his work as for the fact that his ex-wife public stabbed him with a knife during a heated argument, comes over to their table with the bald and bold suggestion that they both have sex with him during a weekend island getaway. A small plane is standing by. They go because Christina wants to, and Vicky, the practical one with a wall-street drone of a fiance, decides she should act as a chaperon. The sex does not go according to plan, and Juan spends a surprising amount of time talking about his Ex, even during the seduction of both ladies.
Despite all of this talk of three ways and plenty of attractive flesh on display, the film is a tad bland and a more than a bit boring during all of this. Javier Bardem hams it up as the Spanish, sensitive super-stud, Hall is fine and Johansson is much better than she was in Match Point. The film comes alive when Penelope Cruz enters the picture. After being hinted at and talked about, much like Harry Lime in The Third Man, she drops on the picture like a nuclear bomb bringing everything to life. Juan Antonio is in a semi-serious relationship with Christina which expands to include ex-wife María Elena. The film spends much of the remainder skimming the surface of American ‘puritan values’ and the desire to ‘let loose in Europe’ hampered by an inability to follow through. It turns this over using both Vicky and Christina’s relationship to Juan Antonio. And by the arrival of Vicky’s LaCoste and Dockers wearing fiance, Doug. Handsome yet bland, Doug is the ‘villain of the piece’ if only because he is constantly mauled by the films romanticism of the Christina-Juan Antonio-María Elena threesome. I’m curious what Tom Cruise would have brought to this performance, because Chris Messina keeps seeming to affect a Cruise-like manner (and there is the whole former Cruise/Cruz relationship which could have brought in a bit of meta playfulness). As Vicky-Doug seem to be floundering, even after their quick marriage in Barcelona, the threesome seems to be a hive of creativity and sexual energy. It turns out that Christina is the cool buffer that prevents tempestuous eruptions of Juan Antonio and María Elena bound together, but the nature of an American tourist in Spain begins to get fickle after the summer starts to run out. Things get complicated once again involving Vicky and some meddling by her Barcelona host, Patricia Clarkson (wasted in miniscule supporting role which mainly consists of greeting people as they get out of cars) and come to rather abrupt, somewhat satisfying, if only for its slightly non-standard, conclusion.
Despite its somewhat slapdash nature, and annoying voice-over, Vicky Christina Barcelona is a pleasant enough diversion which blossoms to full entertainment any time Penelope Cruz thunders into the frame. Her chemistry with Johansson and Bardem are the selling point of the feature, captured nicely in the films catchy One Sheet. Too bad that Rebecca Hall is really the main arc of the film, it dampens the fun promise of a romp in Spain. Ahh, the romantic celebration of tourism!
Stumbling around the net this morning I came upon a story that almost forced me to take a “bathroom break” here at the office. From Real Player (a trustworthy source right?), Scarlet Johansson and Penélope Cruz will have a pretty raunchy sequence together in the new Woody Allen picture, Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
According to the source, “with their steamy love scene… it is extremely erotic. People will be blown away and even shocked. Penélope and Scarlett go at it in a red-tinted photography dark room, and the whole scene will leave the audience gasping. Later in the film, both women indulge in a threesome with Penélope’s real-life boyfriend Javier Bardem.”
So maybe this is a trashy, tabloid sort of story for this site, but hey, it caught my attention and assuming it’s true, I’d be surprised if it isn’t the talk of the town as the film looms nearer. My guess is that this is Woody Allen playing out his “dirty old man” desires; but after decades in the business making critically acclaimed film, one after another, I’d say he’s earned it. And I’d also say more power to him! We need more hot women going at it in film.
