Not much happens in Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

Nothing in theaters at the moment is as pretty as Woody Allen's latest comedy, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," which features not only the lens-cracking gorgeousness of Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson, but a saucy supporting performance by the city of Barcelona and its fanciful Antonio Gaudí architecture. Caught in a yellow light that feels as warm as fresh-baked flan custard, the film has the languid feel of an idealized summer holiday. And if midway through you realize with surprise, as I did, that not much has happened ... well, sometimes not much happens on summer holidays either.

With the addition of Rebecca Hall ("The Prestige"), a young British actress with a long face and lovely droopiness, the film becomes not a love triangle but an unlikely quartet, whose peccadillos are outlined for us by a wry voice-over narrator (Christopher Evan Welch). Vicky (Hall) and Cristina (Johansson) are a pair of Americans spending the summer in Spain; Juan Antonio (Bardem) is the painter they meet in a restaurant on a wine-soaked night. (Come to think of it, the entire movie appears to be soaked in chardonnay.) With his sleepy-eyed charm, he romances both of them; the practical Vicky declines, but the more impulsive Cristina is bowled over — that is, until the arrival of Juan Antonio's volatile ex-wife Maria Elena (Cruz). From here, a variety of twosomes emerge, some of them unexpected, and all of them great-looking.

As relationship comedies go, this one doesn't hold a candle to "Annie Hall"; its story line is featherweight, and when it's over "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" seems to instantly fade away. But it's an improvement over Allen's last movie, the disappointingly familiar thriller "Cassandra's Dream," and there are some lovely moments for the actors. Patricia Clarkson, as the relative of Vicky with whom the young women are staying in Barcelona, has a brief late scene that seems to belong to a different movie but is beautifully played. She speaks of regret, of the corners that life can turn, and Clarkson's weary, knowing voice tells us much more than her words. (She's similarly terrific, in a small role, in "Elegy"; would somebody please give this actress her own movie?)

And Cruz, her hair teased high and her eyes blazing, gives a wickedly funny performance as the tempestuous Maria Elena, who doesn't particularly want Juan Antonio but doesn't want anybody else to have him either. She doesn't trust Cristina ("Her eyes are not one color," Maria Elena notes suspiciously) and warns her ex, saying that she always has his best interests at heart. "Not when you're trying to kill me," says Juan Antonio, recalling an incident from their past. Maria Elena rolls her eyes dismissively. "Oh, that," she says, lightly tossing the thought away like a discarded tissue. It's a screwball role in an otherwise laid-back movie, and Cruz makes it sing.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com