Movie #944 "Magic in the Moonlight" --- let me start by saying I am a huge Woody Allen fan --- I can honestly say I have seen all of his movies, and Woody fans tend to rate them as if his films were in competition with each other --- anyway, this would be in the middle of his work. It isn't as good as "Annie Hall" or "Purple Rose of Cairo" but not as bad as his worst to me --- "stardust Memories" or "Celebrity." That being said, I love to watch Emma Stone work, and in this she didn't disappoint. She has these little quirky things in this character to flesh it out to be a charming "soothsayer" or psychic (you know like the ones the Reagan would listen to when they were in the white house?) Colin Firth is usually fun to watch, but the whole time I kept thinking he was doing a parody of Henry Higgins (or Rex Harrison doing Henry Higgins) -- he's blustering, narcissistic, rude, and I'm not sure why Emma's character would ever fall in love with HIM! There has to be something there for the charmer to fall in love with the guy. The dialogue is witty at times, not very laugh out loud funny, and hits and misses the tough themes that Allen appears to STILL be wrangling with (when you're dead, you're dead --- is there an afterlife? along with the magic of love( which is the only true magic in life, maybe?) The time period is the 1920's but oftentimes they don't seem to use the language of the times --- many times, I would question if that phrase existed (like a doctor telling Firth that for a while his aunt's condition was "touch and go" --- really?) One discussion I DID welcome was the talk Emma and Colin had about love --- usually in a rom com the couple who have been lying to each other every step of the way while they have been together, just turn around and decide they love each other. At least these people talked it out, and I welcomed that. Otherwise, no new ground here ---- very talky, not as witty as his other films, and not too much substance. But, like all Woody Allen movies, it does make you thing. Just not so much this time. Well, it's hard to top his last ones "Midnight in Paris" and "Blue Jasmine." But I have faith he will on the next one. See? I'm a true fan.
Magic in the Moonlight2014PG-13 I would give it 3.8 out of 5
Exposing a phony soothsayer proves harder than expected when the debunker (an Englishman) becomes smitten with the purported fraud (a French beauty). This deft romantic comedy unwinds amid the gilt and glamour of the French Riviera in the 1920s.
No comments:
Post a Comment