Article: Woody Allen's `Vicky Cristina Barcelona' seduces audience.(Arts and Lifestyle)

Byline: JAMES VERNIERE

"VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA"

Rated PG-13. At Kendall Square, Coolidge Corner, Embassy and suburban theaters.

Grade: A-

Once upon a time, writer-director Woody Allen also played the hero of his New York City-set romantic comedies.

Then he hired other actors to play the love-addled and besotted leads in his films, and almost invariably viewers found those actors - Kenneth Branagh, Edward Norton, Jason Biggs, whoever - sounding and acting like Allen.

Enter Javier Bardem. The great Spanish actor has the head of one of Picasso's Minotaurs, a voice of Costa del Sol-warmed gravel and half his dialogue ...

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