BARCELONA
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1994 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Taylor Nichols, Chris Eigeman, Tushka Bergen, Mira Sorvino, Pep Munne. Screenplay/Director: Whit Stillman.
I remember missing Whit Stillman's METROPOLITAN when it was in theaters in 1990, and eagerly awaiting its video release. I had heard Stillman compared to Woody Allen, and I've always been a sucker for urbane banter. But I was disappointed with METROPOLITAN; pithy dialogue only goes so far without any real story. BARCELONA is a step in the right direction, but just a step. There is more substance unifying Stillman's clever observations, but BARCELONA will still come off as far too slow and talky for many viewers, a 100 minute long New Yorker cartoon with a view.
Set in "the last decade of the Cold War," BARCELONA focuses on two Americans living in the Spanish city. Ted (Taylor Nichols) is a sales representative for an American motor company, wrestling with career and romantic uncertainties; his cousin Fred (Chris Eigeman) is a cocky naval officer sent as an advance scout and unlikely goodwill ambassador for an upcoming fleet visit. While Fred is visiting Ted, both men find themselves in tricky situations. Ted falls for Montserrat (Tushka Bergen), a Spanish woman still living with another man; Fred finds anti-American sentiment running high, fanned by Montserrat's journalist boyfriend Ramon (Pep Munne). The cousins make their way through the city sharing their thoughts about love, sex, family and international relations.
Where METROPOLITAN suffered from too many characters too sketchily drawn, BARCELONA wisely narrows its focus. Taylor Nichols plays Ted as the quintessential over-thinker, a man who rationalizes himself into complete inaction over his job, his romances and his relationship with Fred. Chris Eigeman's Fred is a continuation of his delightfully insufferable Nick from METROPOLITAN, and he launches into his role as the ugly American abroad with tremendous enthusiasm. Both performances are extremely strong, but unfortunately both characters are a bit annoying. With significant stretches of BARCELONA consisting almost entirely of conversations between Ted and Fred, their prep school petulance grows tiresome, and you begin to wish for absolutely anything to _happen_ to these guys. When it does, it's a welcome change of pace.
If there is one thing Stillman does know how to do, it's how to load his films with quotable lines. Ted has a sharp little monologue about why he has decided only to date "plain, or even rather homely" women (a resolution he promptly breaks); Fred counters with observations on his confusion over the correct way to shave, as well as why American society is mis-perceived as more violent ("We're just better shots"). There are a number of moments which prompt genuine laughs, but Stillman doesn't seem to know how to incorporate them into a plot. Everything comes to a halt so that his characters can trade bon mots, and it begins to seem as though Stillman has simply set up his camera in front of an expatriate version of the Algonquin Round Table. When he does pull out some quirky, character-based physical comedy, like Ted cutting a rug to "Pennsylvania 6-5000" while reading the Bible, it's as though he's jolted the entire production to life with a cattle prod. Only eventually it settles back into wry philosophizing.
BARCELONA does manage some keen insights into European perceptions about American society and politics, and when Stillman focuses his attention on that theme he is frequently on target. His most perceptive observation connects the attitudes of Europeans towards American tastes to the miserable quality of hamburgers abroad, and it was one of those rare movie moments where I saw the world, if only briefly, through different eyes. That achievement alone warrants praise, and a moderate recommendation. But I sense there will be many viewers who will grow restless waiting for Stillman's characters to get a life. BARCELONA is just clever enough to get by on its charm, but Stillman really needs to stop wallowing in his own cleverness and start telling stories.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 expatriates: 6.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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