Woody Allen’s annual movie is the disappointing romantic comedy of manners Magic in the Moonlight. Set in the late 1920s, a master magician (Colin Firth) goes to the South of France to unmask a phony psychic (Emma Stone). Things do not go as he had been expecting.
There’s plenty of witty banter, especially between Stone and Firth. Both do well in their parts, and they both look fabulous in the period dress. There’s also a really wonderful (as in Oscar-worthy) performance by Eileen Atkins as the magician’s life-seasoned aunt. The superb actress Jacki Weaver isn’t given anything to do except to beam some batty and vacant smiles. The rest of the cast is not as deep as in other Woody Allen movies.
But the movie never reels you in emotionally, and it’s only about as entertaining as one of those British sitcoms playing on your local PBS station. Albeit VERY briefly, I dozed off. Two scenes in particular are extended several moments too long, apparently just to accommodate more repartee. And the empiricism vs spiritualism debate seems shallow, contrived and stale when compared to that in the recent sci-fi romance I Origins.
It’s not unwatchable Woody like The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. But it’s not really good Woody, either. So, if you MUST have a dose of Woody this summer, watch one of Woody’s masterpieces: Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors and Midnight in Paris. Or better yet, go see Boyhood or A Most Wanted Man or – beginning on Friday – Calvary or Alive Inside.