Word: antonios
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...Vicky is immediately attracted to a local painter, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem, this year's Oscar winner for No Country for Old Men). He is one of those artists, found mostly in fiction (and in the fantasies of artists), whose true vocation is mixing up the hearts of the many women who fall into his bed. Their avid emotions are the canvas on which he splashes the bright strokes of his evanescent ardor. Cristina, ready for an adventure, lures the painter to her and Vicky's table, and Juan Antonio, ever the gracious roue, proposes that the Americans accompany...
...Oviedo, Juan Antonio briskly, suavely, steers Cristina to his hotel room. He hardly needs to use all his seductive talents; Cristina is eager for a night with a Latin lover. ("If you don't start undressing me soon," she tells him, "this is going to turn into a panel discussion.") But a bout of stomach poisoning breaks Cristina's mood, and she must convalesce the rest of the weekend. That leaves Juan Antonio with the disapproving, and spoken-for, Vicky. She is one of those females, rife in the Allen canon, whose insecurity is expressed as hostility...
...Well, why shouldn't Allen have a crush on Juan Antonio? For one thing, he dreamed the character up; for another, Bardem doesn't have to work hard to radiate the sensitive machismo of a man who doesn't use women so much as he allows them to briefly fulfill their dreams in him. Visually, too, the movie is in love with Barcelona, its gnarled Gaudi buildings, and with the countryside of Ovieto, a hundred shades of glorious earth tones. (The cinematographer is Javier Aguirresarobe, who has shot films directed by Pedro Almodovar, Victor Erice and Alejandro Amenabar...
...saved the most vibrant character for last: Maria Elena, which Penelope Cruz turns into one of her boldest, fullest, hottest characters. A painter so sexy that Juan Antonio's father still has erotic dreams of her, Maria Elena had been Juan Antonio's muse, competitor and wife; their turbulent marriage ended when she tried to kill him. Of course she shows up, once her ex has set up house with Cristina, allowing Allen to run further amorous permutations. A darkroom kiss between Cruz and Johansson is probably Allen's most direct expression of romantic-sexual connection...
...fully in tune with their feelings: totally willing, and why not?, to act on impulses they've learned to trust. The Americans are children by comparison, a little stiff, so conditioned to overanalyzing every attraction that they would lose the moment - if only there weren't a Don Juan Antonio to send seismic shivers up their consciences...