Allen has hit with amusing 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'

After a spate of interesting but unremarkable movies, including "Cassandra's Dream," "Scoop," "Match Point" and "Melinda and Melinda," director/writer Woody Allen hits a minor comic jackpot with the unwieldy titled "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."

Just as the Britain setting gave the New York-obsessed Allen a needed creative boost with "Match Point," Spain appears to be an even greater muse for the filmmaker. "Vicky" is his breeziest, sexiest exploration of the complicated mess called romance in years.

"Vicky" shows off Scarlett Johansson's subtle flair for comedy, propels the mostly unknown Rebecca Hall into a higher Hollywood orbit, and gives Oscar winner Javier Bardem a haircut that doesn't frighten people to death.

The comedy centers around the Barcelona vacation of two best friends, the fetching brunette Vicky (Hall) and the subtle, sizzling blonde Cristina (Johansson). Vicky likes things planned and prepared. Cristina embraces total spontaneity. So it's not too surprising that when a burly Bohemian Spanish artist approaches them with an offer to whisk them off to Catalonia for a day (and maybe a night), Vicky balks. But Cristina thinks, why not?

He's Juan Antonio (Bardem), a famous Spanish artist with a reputation for having many lovers and tempestuous romances. He reportedly had a fiery marriage to another artist, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz), who once stabbed him with a knife during a marital discussion. Juan is candid about what he wants, and what he expects, from the women. Nothing, or maybe something. He offers a grand adventure that the impulsive Cristina can't pass up.

But Vicky thinks she must. She's engaged to a dull, nice guy New Yorker named Doug (Chris Messina). She knows she shouldn't go to Catalonia, but does. Someone needs to watch Cristina's back, and Juan is watching all the other parts.

In Catalonia, which looks just as picture postcard-esque as Barcelona, thanks to cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe's sumptuous images, Cristina matches Juan for blunt honesty.

"I'll go to your room, but you'll have to seduce me," she purrs with feminine confidence, the ultimate aphrodisiac. "If you don't start undressing me soon, this will turn into a panel discussion," she coos later.

As in many Allen movies, the best laid things are the characters' plans, which take a turn for the unexpected when Cristina comes down with a horrible illness, leaving Juan and Vicky to care for her. And get to know each other better.

Vicky feels so terrible about her night with Juan that she agrees to move up her wedding date at the behest of her beau, who's willing to come to Spain to do the deed.

Meanwhile, the emotionally volcanic Maria Elena re-enters Juan's life after a botched suicide attempt (one of many, one suspects) and pushes Juan to bring her back into his house with Cristina. There, the blonde American becomes a reluctant, then willing, part of a strange but workable threesome. Maria Elena hails Cristina as "the missing element" that allows herself and Juan to live together without killing each other.

But is that happiness?

Relationships are anything but cut-and-dried in "Vicky," which follows the two Americans on their quest to find what they want. Like many people, they discover it's easier to find out what they don't want.

Allen, now 72, maintains his flair for intelligent, comic romances. The only problem with "Vicky"? The distracting narrator who imparts so much redundant information that he could be making a book-on-tape.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Three stars (out of four)

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz

Directed by: Woody Allen

Other: A MGM release. Rated PG-13 for sexual situations, smoking. 97 minutes.