VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA is a film about youth, about self-discovery, and about the anything goes freedom and spontaneity that Americans feel (or try to feel) when far from their own homeland and therefore liberated from their own cultures notions about love and life. Abroad one escapes the tyranny of ingrained convention and habits of mind and one gives oneself permission to experience another version of self and life in another land, or such is the promise of travel. The problem with Vicky and Cristina (and perhaps with this film) is that Barcelona does not really liberate either of them from anything. Both seem too self-conscious and/or too self-occupied to step outside themselves and what they know. Both have a comfort level with themselves and each other that is never breeched. And so although Barcelona promises and delivers a certain amount of adventure, it does not really deliver either girl from themselves. During their stay, they are exposed to a passionate Spanish culture and introduced to a fiery tempered Spaniard but ultimately they both make the same kinds of choices that they made back home. Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) has always been an impulsive free spirit who starts things, loses interest, and does not finish them. It does not matter what country she is in, she is the same, and so the Spanish trip ultimately changes nothing for her. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) has always been conservative in matters of life and love. Although she is attracted to others that feel things and act on those feelings (like her friend Cristina) Vicky does not altogether trust emotions and is afraid to have them and, therefore, is never certain what she feels or if she feels anything at all. Vicky is very much like a classic Henry James male and she is driven by the same fear that drives James' male characters which is a fear that they are missing out on life. Although engaged before she embarks on her Spanish holiday, and apparently immune from the advances of strangers, she, nonetheless, remains fearful that she is missing out on something. Its really only when her friend enjoys a spontaneous summer with the painter Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) and his former lover Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) that she wishes that she too could live so passionately, so recklessly. The fact that she holds everything in is what makes her so alluring to the passion-drunk Juan Antonio. But she is who she is, neither Spain nor Juan Antonio have the power to changer her. And so there is something sad about this trip (and this film). Woody Allen is one of the few directors who gives us genuinely interesting characters and stories and that should be applauded. In this film the two main characters, Vicky and Cristina, are ultimately incapable of being anything but who they are and who they are is Vicky and Cristina. Whether Woody thinks that their inability to live or think outside of their own comfort zone is an affliction that is peculiarly American is not exactly clear, but likely. Marie Elena's view of the Americans is that they are too self-involved to really live. Of course Maria Elena who does allow herself to live also opens herself up to suffering. I'm guessing that with Vicky Cristina Barcelona Woody is perhaps analyzing the American psyche (which is what he does best) and that what he finds is a psyche that is firmly rooted in and addicted to self and that resists any kind of self-surrender. This seems to be the sober reflection of an artist who has seen and contemplated America and Americans for many years. Despite the location this is a very sober film and, despite a few well-placed laughs, also a very somber one.