BARCELONA

Whit Stillman’s BARCELONA is a winsome romantic comedy about love, family and American identity that manages to entertain and uplift without resorting to heavy-handed moralizing or blatant audience manipulation. Set during “the last decade of the Cold War,” the film focuses on the life of Ted Boynton, a nerdy American sales representative abroad trying to find success in business and in love in a culture that sees Americans as overbearing, unintellectual fascists. When Ted falls for a young Spanish woman who is under the spell of a leftist, pseudo-intellectual, local columnist, an amusing ideological tug-of-war ensues, and Ted suddenly finds himself having to choose between love for woman, love for family and love for country.

BARCELONA’s chief strength lies in its sophisticated, witty script which gives its characters the freedom to pursue Christian values with dignity and is tinged with an unmistakable pro-American sentiment. In fact, the hero is sympathetically portrayed as someone who struggles to hold onto biblical mores while living in a decadent culture. This follow-up to Stillman’s METROPOLITAN is marred, regrettably, by profanity, implied and briefly depicted fornication and implied cocaine use.