Como é bom ver uma recepção destas.

Perdoem-me a franqueza. Não estou em mim, e mais vale assumi-lo. Qualquer tentativa de articular pensamentos através da escrita, nos próximos minutos, sairá furada. Aliás, tentar o quer que seja, nos próximos minutos, tirando o sorriso de orelha a orelha, dificilmente trará algo de bom. Daí a redacção telegráfica deste post. De modo a não cometer grandes barbaridades, nada melhor do que ser sucinto.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona estreou em Cannes este fim-de-semana. Stop. Após um primeiro par de reacções mistas, a poeira assentou, e a maioria tem sido mais do que positiva. Stop. Penélope Cruz tem sido a mais aplaudida. Stop. Parece que o filme inclina-se mais para a comédia. Stop. Há mesmo quem diga tratar-se do melhor trabalho de Woody Allen desde Crimes e Escapadelas (1990). Stop. Mesmo que não venha a gostar do filme, a satisfação desta noite já ninguém me tira. Stop. Aqui ficam algumas das principais críticas sobre o filme. Stop. Isto do stop é uma enorme parvoíce. Stop.

Hollywood Reporter – "Vicky Cristina Barcelona may, for others, represent a welcome return to the neurotic, impetuous romances of his Annie Hall and Manhattan and even his Husbands and Wives periods. Not that Vicky is in the category of those Allen classics. But he is not taking himself too seriously here and he is not imposing a story on a foreign city with scant regard for its culture. Boxoffice results should follow the usual pattern with Allen's more successful comedies”.

The Independent – “It’s coffee-table cinema, to be sure, and slightly less sparkling than a good glass of Cava - but occasionally there’s the odd Woody zinger, and it all momentarily seems worthwhile. “If you don’t start undressing me soon,” Johannson’s Cristina tells Bardem, “this is going to turn into a panel discussion”.

Fox News – “The result is Allen’s funniest movie since Manhattan Murder Mystery and Bullets Over Broadway in the mid 1990s. It’s simple, straightforward and hilarious, with all the actors working at their highest levels, no one mimicking Allen’s delivery and Cruz stealing the film when she enters almost half way through the picture”.

Screen Daily – “Vicky Cristina Barcelona... is as close to consistently delightful as Allen has been able to deliver since 1994's Bullets Over Broadway. Given a dramatic boost by the vitality and charisma of Spanish superstars Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, this sunny romantic comedy could well be the director's biggest audience-pleaser in years”.

Variety – “Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a sexy, funny divertissement that passes as enjoyably as an idle summer's afternoon in the titular Spanish city. With Javier Barden starring as a bohemian artist involved variously with Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz and Rebecca Hall, pic offers potent romantic fantasy elements for men and women and a cast that should produce the best commercial returns for a Woody Allen film since Match Point. And, in the bargain, if Barcelona wants even more visitors than it already attracts, this film will supply them".

Cinematical – “Suffice it to say that Allen has created one of his best works in years, a film that is funny, philosophical, and imaginatively explorative of the meaning of love and desire. Cruz turns in a performance that's better, even, than her Oscar-nominated turn in Volver; her Maria Elena is on-the-edge crazy, but is also very funny and engaging”.

Time – “Well, maybe not in that empyrean, but arguably in the ballpark. It's hard not to feel warmly toward Allen after VCB, his first vital movie since Match Point three years ago (we quickly throw the veil of oblivion over Scoop and Cassandra's Dream), and maybe his most engaging large-scale effort since, let's say, Crimes and Misdemeanors nearly 20 years ago. It doesn't percolate with the inventive comic situations or quotable one-liners of the films that established his meta-movie credentials, Annie Hall and Manhattan; but, like them, this one is about people whose jobs are incidental to their real vocations of falling in love and messing things up. With seven major characters, five of whom have affairs during one Spanish summer, VCB is a God's-eye view of the thesis that "only unfulfilled love can be romantic".

Deuxieme – (José Vieira Mendes) “A chuva e o mau tempo surpreenderam Cannes com um fim-de-semana bastante molhado e fresco. As starletes, ‘mulheres do outro mundo’, sempre à procura de uma oportunidade, passeavam um pouco mais tapadinhas que o costume e de guarda-chuva em punho. A propósito de belas mulheres, já que um homem ama várias, melhor é levá-las todas para sua casa. Este é o mote da nova comédia de Woody Allen, intitulada Vicky Cristina Barcelona, num regresso a velhas histórias, problemáticas do amor e geniais diálogos, num bilhete turístico-cinematográfico de Barcelona e Oviedo, interpretado magistralmente por Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Penélope Cruz e Javier Bardem”.