Vicky Cristina Barcelona: Why did they have to cut the threesome!

I loaned this DVD from my office mate with high hopes of witnessing a threesome between Javier Bardiem, Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johannson. It was mind blowing legendary stuff! Now I get why it got an X rating in the States, and was only brought down to an NC-17 when the threesome scene was removed completely.

Just kidding, there was no threesome or girl to girl action, just hints of it. Heck, not even a bed scene was given seconds of screen time. The name of the game is teasing, teasing and teasing.

Not to take away from Penelope Cruz's new breath of acting, or the quirky dialogue exchanges, or the sound stealing narrator, but I think this was more of a technical masterpiece. At times, I thought I was having a tour of Spain with the beautiful scenery which were shot marvelously by Woody Allen. Nevertheless, the film holds together with the simple plot, the sexual tension and that unconventional take on love and relationship.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona just teaches us that we can never be sure of what we want. Want changes, want evolves, want falters. I never saw love in the characters. Penelope Cruz's character was not in love with Bardiem. She just wanted him for he made her feel alive, artistic and productive. Bardiem was not in love with Johanssen nor with Rebecca Hall nor Cruz. He just wanted them for the experience of having them in and around. Johansson, herself, was admittedly not in love, nor she did not know what she want, only what she did not want. Hall was obviously just in love with the obsession that she was still unsure of her wants.

Overall, a good to great film on the tribulations of man and three women on their yearning to find a fulfilling and meaningful relationship, and more, life. This film triumphs to suggest that we may go lengths, travel to distant countries, and try weird threesomes but we will still be where we are at, with ourselves, where we started.

8 out of 10.