I'll show you around the city, and we'll eat well. We'll drink good wine. We'll make love.

Once again I was promised a return to form from Woody Allen, this time with Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and I was disappointed.

It would be easy to attack Woody Allen and his films for the kinds of characters they present. Characters with the financial means that allow them to take summer trips to Barcelona to study the Catalan. Characters who are high-minded, narcissistic, self-loathing and mildly pretentious. Characters who can worry about the meaning of love and their own self satisfaction rather than how they're going to be paying their rent. But to fault the film for presenting the social class of characters that Woody has been exploring for most of his career, when he isn't dabbling in the Depression, isn't really fair.

While my own financial and employment dissatisfaction served as a small barrier for my engagement with the film, what didn't work for me was that much like Match Point, the film is simply a play on small and familiar themes. Match Point was all about chance and whether someone can be at the right place at the right time to either change their social class or to get away with murder.

This time around, Woody presents his treatise on European romance. When I say European romance, I mean this concept that to travel to Europe is to indulge in a different life, a more care free life. The idea that Americans can throw caution to the wind when in romantic cities and indulge in sexual experimentation with little consequence (exemplified with both Vicky and Cristina's romance with Juan Antonio) or that to be European is to be more passionate and artistic (exemplified by Cristina's photography, as well as most of her relationship with Juan Antonio and Maria Elena). That to live in Europe is to be on vacation all the time.

I can respect the films exploration of these ideas. The problem is that it all just ends up feeling a little too small. By the end, everything is just a little to pat and dry as unsurprisingly, Vicky and Cristina realize that no matter how idealistic Barcelona may have seemed, it isn't what they want in the long run. Vicky ultimately needs the safety and stability she seemed to running away from, and Cristina always needs something new or she'll get bored.

In the end, the film doesn't commend its characters for what they've learned. Rather, it shows contempt for nearly everyone. As a viewer, we look down at Vicky first for being so straight laced, on Cristina for being so aloof and indecisive, on Juan Antonio and Maria Elena for being so emotional and overly passionate while lacking any real intelligence, on Doug for being a shallow financial douche bag. By the end, this contempt is just unsatisfying, as the film really provides no real answers to the questions it presents by being an exploration of a theme. If filling one's life with passion, love, and art isn't the way to overcome dissatisfaction and find meaning, then what is?