[Rebecca Hall] steals the movie from the trio of well-known stars on the poster.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 6, 2023

The movie is never as funny or as clever as it tries to be, and it ultimately falls apart in its nonsensical third act.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 21, 2022

The worst aspect of Vicky Cristina Barcelona is its attitude toward art and creativity, which is entirely superficial.

| Feb 13, 2021

The Spanish sun has clearly rejuvenated Woody Allen's career. After making three films in London with diminishing returns... he's noticeably benefited from a good dose of Vitamin D: Vicky Cristina Barcelona is his most entertaining movie in years.

| Nov 20, 2020

This is Allen's most laid-back movie in memory, but the relaxed, carefree vibe does not blunt the edge of the humour. The city of Barcelona is a delight to gaze at throughout too.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 2, 2020

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a colourful, passionate romantic comedy that - hopefully - marks a return to form for one of the industry's most iconic talents.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 30, 2019

Truly a ride of pure enjoyment to watch...

| Apr 9, 2019

Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, is Miss Cruz. She has always been a more than serviceable actress, but here she really shines.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 13, 2018

Missing from Vicky Cristina Barcelona are the keenly complex touches that elevated [Woody Allen's] earlier statements on caprice. Then again, that's been gone from his movies for years, and there's vain hope in thinking that Iberia would inspire it again.

| Oct 18, 2018

This is a slight film, a minor Allen film, a bit of a footnote, but it's warm and engaging and isn't Matchpoint, Scoop or Cassandra's Dream, which has to be a mercy.

| Aug 29, 2018

This is one of Woody's throw-away movies. It's as if he has a compulsion to make them, just as he has to haul his ass down to Michael's Pub in Manhattan every Monday and play clarinet.

| Dec 15, 2017

Penelope's performance is a little sterotypoical, but fantastic...

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 12, 2017

. . .while Vicky Cristina Barcelona isn't entirely a return to form, it is interesting enough to stick in one's brain.

| Aug 22, 2017

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is everything it tries, halfheartedly, to criticize about the character of Vicky: It's determined to be ordinary and likeable no matter what the emotional cost.

| Aug 21, 2017

What you see is less reflective of old glories and more indicative of a new composure that inflicts a lot of Allen's newest endeavors, in which characters are seen engaging in discussions that test the limits of their deadening comforts.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 13, 2017

Unlike the vast majority of summertime comedies, the delights of Vicky Cristina Barcelona won't evaporate any time soon.

| May 16, 2016

I couldn't imagine better company than Vicky, Cristina and Woody on a relaxing summer day.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 21, 2014

Allen seems uninterested in pushing his material beyond impersonally generic, or even in thinking things through.

| Feb 6, 2014

It's a shift in tone for Allen; it's still a movie about sex and those who seek it, but it's hung on a sun-blushed, wine-sploshed Spanish love triangle that's more appealing and more amorous than anything the director has produced in decades.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 29, 2012

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 17, 2011