New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Evening Standard rating
Reader rating
Dir: Woody Allen.
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson
Description: Flighty and single Cristina and soon-to-be-married Vicky head to Barcelona for the summer where they stay with the latter's relatives, Mark and Judy, in a gorgeous villa. Taking in the sights of the city, the young women catch the eye of artist Juan Antonio, who is the talk of the town because, as a local explains, "He had that fiery relationship with that beautiful woman who was nuts." Cristina falls under Juan Antonio's spell and they embark on an affair, only for crazy ex-wife, Maria Elena, to reappear and stir up dormant desires. A love triangle becomes a rhombus when Juan Antonio casts admiring glances at Vicky and she questions the depth of her feelings for her workaholic fiance, Doug.
Country: US/SP. 2008. 96mins
Tangled relationship: Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem
If ever a movie killed two birds with one stone it’s this romantic comedy from Woody Allen. It serves brilliantly to please its Spanish hosts, with copious tourist views of Catalan attractions, and provides well-written parts for a quartet of actors who run with them.
Any resemblance to Allen’s last few films is purely coincidental. This is much better, even though it’s determinedly silly, and possibly wishful-thinking, in essence. After what we’ve seen from Allen from Match Point onwards, its sheer entertainment value is a minor miracle.
Its two attractive but not terribly bright American tourists in Europe are Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson). Cristina is restless and looking for a suitably sexy piece of male flesh, while Vicky is more sensible but trapped between her dull lawyer fiancé and a more exciting life away from home.
They then meet Javier Bardem’s sexy Spanish painter, who clearly has designs on both of them — and indeed any other piece of female flesh that comes his way. They both succumb to his charm until the painter’s ex-wife (Penelope Cruz) enters stage left. This puts the cat among the pigeons and Allen, armed with a clever screenplay, turns the screw unmercifully.
It’s all a fairly daft fantasy — the painter is a stereotype of darkly handsome Spanish men. Any halfway sophisticated woman would know exactly what he was up to — but then we wouldn’t have a movie.
As for Cruz’s passionate, provocative ex-wife, she too is a figment of Allen’s imagination — though the actor is good enough to carry all before her with a display of theatrical high jinks you have to see to believe.
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What we get throughout is playing of quality (particularly from Cruz and Hall), a good deal of wishful-thinking, views which are as colourful as the characters, and Allen talking to us about love, sex, pain and pleasure as if he were Moses with some new tablets (Viagra perhaps?).
It’s not Annie Hall. But don’t believe a word of it and you’ll be splendidly entertained
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I cannot believe the Standard's four-star review, and the unlikely claim that Woody might be getting back to his best. Aside from the unlikely fantasy of a storyline, the most irritating aspect was the Narrator's voice-overs telling us what we were about to see. Narrator: 'Vicky and Cristina went to a restaurant and had a meal.' Action: Vicky and Cristina have a meal. Narrator: 'Vicky made love to the Spanish painter.' Action: Vicky and the Spanish painter make love.'Totally unnecessary and annoying.
I must say up until two years ago I thought that Scarlett Johansson was one of the bright young things coming out of the US. I mean with talent. But she has been in so many poor quality films of late, 'Wimbledon' the dreadful 'Scoop' to name but two, I feel she is allowing herself to be set up, sadly, as nothing more than a sex-symbol, a lass with a lovely body, that we can all delight in. No problem there from a viewer's aspect, but it does diminish the actress I really think she is. Naomi Watts is an example of a young actor who is taking the right path; one that I thought Miss Johansson would follow. Sadly not!
- Roger Goldsmith, Southsea, Hants
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