In literature and film, young Americans often go abroad to have formative experiences. This tried-and-true formula gets a new take from writer and director Woody Allen in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. A serious comedy, it explores romantic and sexual love while celebrating the unpredictable.

Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johannsen) play best friends who are very different people. Vicky is engaged to the thoroughly conventional man she plans to marry in the fall. A Good Girl, Vicky likes the predictability of her future life with Doug, though she doesn't know what she wants to do with a master's degree in Catalan Studies. The vaguely artistic Cristina is the Wild One who knows what she doesn't want but not what she does want.

Speaking of wants, when Freud was asked what a healthy human being should be able to do, he replied, "To love and to work." This film is mostly about the love part.

At loose ends for July and August, Vicky and Cristina move into the beautiful home of Vicky's relatives in Barcelona. The city itself is the biggest star, enough to get a viewer on the next plane. The settings are simply fabulous and include a photogenic stretch of the Catalan coast and some delightful buildings.

One night Vicky and Cristina are having dinner with a lot of wine and are approached by a Spanish hunk named Juan Antonio. This bohemian painter is played by Javier Bardem, who has a much better haircut than he did as the psychopathic killer in No Country for Old Men. Juan Antonio invites both of them to join him for a weekend of eating, drinking and making love in a beautiful place. Yes, both of them. The plane leaves in one hour. Cristina wants to go; Vicky doesn't.

The rest of the film follows the relationships both women have with Juan Antonio. A major complication arrives from Madrid in the form of Juan Antonio's volatile ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz).The results range from hilarious to moving as the two women develop. Fiance Doug arrives, Vicky takes a Spanish course and Cristina grows as a photographer, but the main focus is on Juan Antonio's effects on two very different women.

I know people who refuse to see Woody Allen movies because of his personal life. As one who disapproves but forgives, I do recommend Vicky Cristina Barcelona. It isn't brilliant in the way that Match Point was brilliant but recalls some of Allen's earlier comedies. The actors must have had great fun making this film and that's contagious. But again, this is a serious comedy with more questions than answers about the eternal mysteries of love and sex.

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