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Woody Allen has been consistently churning out movies his entire career, in fact he has been releasing at least one film a year since 2005 (he released two films that year). Now quantity doesn't always mean quality even for a prolific filmmaker like Woody Allen who has made several less-than-stellar works especially this century. Magic in the Moonlight is his latest film; starring Colin Firth, Emma Stone, Marcia Gay Harden, Hamish Linklater, Simon McBurney, Jackie Weaver and Eileen Atkins.
Magic in the Moonlight follows Stanley (Firth), an illusionist who goes to the French Riviera to prove that Sophie (Stone), a young clairvoyant and mystic is a fraud. Now the son of wealthy family (Linklater) has grown smitten with Sophie and intends to marry her but Stanley won't let this happen, especially if she does turn out to be a con artist. Of course being a Woody Allen film Stanley and Sophie wind up falling for each other though several things get in the way, mostly themselves.
Emma Stone is quite fantastic as Sophie and is able to bring her usual charm and a thirst for the wonders of life to her character. Colin Firth is also good but his character is very much a jerk who is closed off to of life, so much so that he finds the moon and stars more menacing than beautiful. The rest of the cast is solid though don't have much to do except Simon McBurney who gets a bit more to play with as a friend and trickster.
The film is also very well made, with the production design and locations being beautifully captured by Darius Khondji's beautiful anamorphic cinematography. It actually happens to be the fourth Woody Allen film to be shot on the anamorphic format. It really is a gorgeous looking film and captures the time period quite eloquently. But it's not the filmmaking that let's this movie down but the script...
Woody Allen is a very prolific screenwriter with 16 Oscar nominations for original screenplay with three wins. It is rather disappointing when he makes a rather subpar film and even more so when the screenplay is to blame. Magic in the Moonlight suffers from being a rather small idea stretched out into the length of a feature film not helped by almost every romantic cliché in book. The dialogue also suffers from too much exposition which is odd since Woody Allen is usually a master of dialogue.
What we have with Magic in the Moonlight is a rather mediocre Woody Allen film. It's not terrible but it's not good either; it has many enjoyable moments and a good cast but is also rather dull, predictable and forgettable. If you still want to see it don't let me stop you, it is very watchable but I just didn't find it enjoyable. If anything it's more if a home video rental than a film to see in cinemas.
2 1/2 out of 5 stars.
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