'Magic In The Moonlight'. Directed by Woody Allen. Starring Colin Firth, Simon McBurney, Emma Stone, Marcia Gay Harden and Hamish Linklater.
First off, credit where credit is due. Woody Allen is 78 years old and started making movies in the late 1960's. He has outlasted nearly all of his contemporaries like Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola and other big names who started making films at about the same time as Allen.Unlike them, Allen is still going strong.
So for film goers and Woody Allen that's a good thing. "I don't care about my films being immortal," Allen once said. "I want to be immortal."
Yet his latest film 'Magic in the Moonlight' won't save Allen's life or help his reputation. It's not a great film or even a good one. Still, there are some good things in the film. One of them is the main character Stanley Crawford played by Colin Firth. He's a famous magician in the 1920's who's called Wei Ling Soo when he's performing tricks. Stanley is an ill-tempered abusive rationalist who doesn't believe in spiritualism. So one of his magician friends played by Simon McBirney hauls him off to the south of France.
Here he meets Sophie Baker (Emma Stone), a medium and her mother played by Marcia Gay Harden. Baker can communicate with dead people and is in the film speaking with the dead Mr. Catledge. His wealthy son Brice (Hamish Linklater) is in love with Sophie and expresses his affection for her by playing songs for her, backed up by his harmonica.
Stanley falls in love with Sophie and shows an amazing ability to know Stanley's past and present. "Not another fake psychic," complains Stanley when he first hears about Sophie.
Alas, 'Magic In The Moonlight' lacks the magic of many of Allen's past films. The film is saved from being a complete dud by the acting of Colin Firth and the wonderful camera work of cinematographer Darius Khondji. At times Khondji's camerawork can make a viewer think that he or she is in a landscape painting by Claude Monet or Auguste Renoir.
Yet elsewise, 'Magic' never quite takes off. Emma Stone's character, Sophie Baker, comes off at times as lifeless and dull. The sparks that should fly between Stanley and Sophie, aren't there.
Let's hope that Allen's next film will be a better work than "Magic In The Moonlight'. For this flick lacks the tensions and suspense of Allen's past films.
