VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA ****

Love is a hard road. Sex only complicates things further. There is no reprieve in this life where matters of the heart are concerned.

Just endless questions with no definitive answers.

VICKY (REBECCA HALL) and CRISTINA (SCARLETT JOHANSSON) are two young American women who are more than vaguely aware of this particular puzzle. They decide to spend their summer vacationing in Spain.

Vicky (an attractive brunette) is the sensible realist. She’s engaged to DOUG (SIX FEET UNDER’S CHRIS MESSINA), a decent guy who cherishes her and shares her conservative values. On the surface, he would appear to be her perfect man. They have a comfortable caring relationship. Vicky is only vaguely aware that there might be something missing.

Cristina is a vibrant hothouse wild flower. She is the uninhibited romantic that dreams of passion but instinctively knows the lay of the land. She’s open to a variety of different experiences and situations – and with her provocative figure, smoky voice and magnificent mane of blonde hair, she won’t ever go unnoticed or unappreciated. She is impulsive but she won’t settle for less than she deserves.

Cristina is not effortlessly swept away by just anyone. She is an aspiring filmmaker/actor who longs for meaning, both professionally and personally. Yet she remains restless and perpetually dissatisfied.

The girls adore Barcelona. It’s a gorgeous glittering city filled with exquisite architecture and incredible culture.

One evening they’re having a drink at a local restaurant when a handsome painter that they previously noticed at an art gallery arrives to join them.

JUAN ANTONIO (JAVIER BARDEM) tells them that they’re both very beautiful and desirable. He invites them to journey to another Spanish town and spend the weekend with him there. If they’re agreeable, he promises several days of talking, drinking, eating, sightseeing…and great sex.

Unsurprisingly, Vicky becomes offended and rather hostile while Cristina is deeply intrigued. But Juan Antonio is neither a liar nor a user. He isn’t out to hurt anyone deliberately and he genuinely adores women. “Life is dull, short, full of pain. Why not enjoy it while you can?”

He was married to the love of his life, MARIA ELENA (PENELOPE CRUZ). She’s also an artist. She’s sexy, wild, gloriously temperamental…and completely unstable. As he explains, “We are meant for each other AND not meant for each other.” It was a passion so grand, intense and exquisitely brutal that he knows without question that it could never be duplicated.

Besides, she tried to kill him.

At this stage, Juan Antonio wants to spend his time distracting himself with any lovely female that suits him at the moment. He’s open to endless possibilities. Nothing is carved in stone. But he’s all ready had the ultimate experience. He and Maria Elena are fated to make up and break up eternally.

Vicky is completely opposed to the idea. She’s engaged and she’s not going. But Cristina is interested. She won’t guarantee that anything physical will happen. But life is all about seizing the day. Juan Antonio is the first man that she’s been drawn to since she arrived.

Vicky finally agrees to accompany Cristina. She doesn’t want her to get in any trouble. They depart in Juan Antonio’s plane. They spend the day together and then he asks the women back to his room.

Vicky goes off to her own suite but Cristina tells Juan Antonio that she’ll come up as long as he agrees to seduce her. He heartily agrees. They begin kissing and caressing. Before anything can happen, Cristina’s ulcer begins to bother her and she falls ill. The doctor provides Cristina with medicine and orders her to rest for the remainder of the weekend.

Vicky and Juan Antonio are left to their own devices. They begin spending time together in Cristina’s absence and Vicky finds herself warming to the soulful Spaniard. She realizes she enjoys his company a great deal and discovers that she was wrong about him.

Of course her initial extreme reaction was due to the fact that she was intensely attracted to him immediately and couldn’t deal with that fact. Before they leave the hotel – in an entirely spontaneous moment – Juan Antonio and Vicky sleep together.

Back on their own again several days later, Cristina gets invited out by Juan Antonio. Vicky is far more sensitive than she allows people to realize. She says nothing to Cristina. But the pain is enormous. Cristina begins a romance with Juan Antonio and eventually moves in with him while Vicky remains endlessly melancholy.

During two meetings, Juan Antonio clarifies things with Vicky. He tells her that things between them just got out of control. He wanted her sincerely but he was developing a destructive attachment to her. She has a life and a serious boyfriend that she intends to marry. He could never compete with that or want to get in the middle of that situation. Her choice has all ready been made. Later, he makes it abundantly clear that he’s now with Cristina and he intends to honour that.

Vicky attempts to think things through. She’s going through a huge emotional crisis. But Juan Antonio is no longer available to her. Despondent and unhappy, she talks to Doug about the future. (But not about her steamy weekend.) Doug wants to come to Barcelona. She agrees and they get married there.

Then Maria Elena overdoses. She loses her job, her boyfriend, her home….EVERYTHING. Juan Antonio insists that Maria Elena stay with him and Cristina until she recovers. It will only be for a few months.

Things are just starting to get interesting….

WOODY ALLEN is, of course, one of the best writer/directors in the history of film. He particularly excels at the compelling allure and great difficulty of modern relationships. In VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA he illuminates all of the unalterable truths and complete cliches regarding soulmates, lovers and living together and turns them into sublime poetry witnessed on the glorious golden streets of a luscious European metropolis.

He has also found an entirely new style and for that he should be commended. From the first film that he directed (TAKE THE MONEY & RUN) right up until MELINDA & MELINDA, a WOODY ALLEN film was a completely recognizable entity regardless of genre.

Like MATCH POINT, the action is set overseas. From that juncture, any of his films could conceivably have come from a fresh new talent. To completely reinvent yourself as a filmmaker after 35 years (and to inspire a decided break with tradition) is a remarkable feat in a long list of achievements that Mr. Allen has perfected. It is, at the very least, an extraordinarily impressive and unusual accomplishment.

He is working with a breathtaking palette of rich new colours.

The actors are all excellent. But the standouts are Mr. Bardem and Ms. Cruz. They have exceptional chemistry with each other. But they are both wonderful as two stunningly sensual Europeans – one who is determined to taste life and live it to the fullest and the other bent on destroying herself and everyone else in the process.

This film is about all the situations that we know so well: loves fought for and lost, dreams shattered, a tiny ray of hope that blossoms slowly and then disappears forever.

Relationships are nonsensical, difficult, challenging and utterly maddening. There are few pleasures more exquisite when a romantic interaction is going well. (Sexual and otherwise.) But there are definite risks that never go away.

Why keep trying? Largely because physical and emotional needs are unstoppable forces that can not be denied. To reconcile yourself to a life entirely alone is not much of a solution – and there is always hope.

But in an unstable, sometimes cruel heartless world, what choices are available? People will continue longing, yearning, searching. There will never be an end to that restlessness.

It’s all encompassing and unending. As inevitable as the sunrise.

The quest for love is eternal. Even though it never lasts.

VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA amply illustrates all of those principles.

It is the best Woody Allen film in years.