I lost interest in Woody Allen in the mid 90s. I decided that I hated almost all his work (including his early “good” stuff) in early 2000s.

This film is somewhat of an exception, and might be the only Allen film I can stand at this point. It still suffers from Allen’s painfully stilted dialog, but somehow Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz take his crap writing and do something good with it. I don’t know if they really are brilliant actors, or if it is just that their Spanish accents make Allen’s hackneyed dialog sound fresh and interesting – maybe a bit of both. Scarlett Johansson remains “lips without a face”, but Rebecca Hall is quite good playing the “Woody Allen character.”

It also has incredibly beautiful scenery, a good score, and is very well shot.

Probably one of the more enjoyable mainstream movies of the year.