Penélope Cruz’s performance is one of those that saves a rather boring and lifeless movie with an enormous amount of energy and scene-stealing. It takes a great deal of time before Penélope Cruz enters the movie for the first time and her screen-time is surprisingly limited – but she still the saving grace of the story, creating an unpredictable and wild character who is undoubtedly the highpoint of this movie. Before Maria Elena enters the story of Vicky Christina Barcelona, her character has been mentioned quite a few times already and evoked all kind of expectations – Maria Elena is supposed to be wild and a little bit dangerous, even violent and all other kinds of characteristics that in a movie like this would be called ‘passionate’. And Penélope Cruz manages to match all these expectations – but her Maria Elena is also more. There is something magnetic about her, she’s the kind of woman people would love to be around.
Penélope Cruz’s Maria Elena is not only temperamental and unpredictable – she is also honest and likeable.
Maria Elena is not a very well written character – she’s there to point out the obvious, to make the other characters re-think their own actions and thoughts but she is never really given the chance to become her own person. So Penélope Cruz deserves some extra points for making her such a force of nature on the screen and brining the whole movie to another level whenever she appears.
It’s a very realistic performance of a certain type of woman that Penélope Cruz brings to live beautifully.
Title: Number 43: Penélope Cruz as Maria Elena in "Vicky Christina Barcelona" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)
Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
1:40 AM
Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
1:40 AM
