Magic in the Moonlight

2014

USA

Written/Directed by: Woody Allen
Stars: Colin Firth, Emma Stone, Eileen Atkins, Simon McBurney, Marcia Gay Harden 
Motion Picture Rating (MPAA): Rated PG-13 for a brief suggestive comment, and smoking throughout

What it's all about:

In the 1920s, magician Stanley Crawford (Colin Firth) enjoys worldwide fame as Chinese conjurer Wei Ling Soo, his stage persona. One of the most arrogant performers in the business, Stanley despises claims by phony spiritualists that they can perform real magic. At the request of his friend and fellow magician Howard (played by Simon McBurney), Stanley agrees to expose a young medium named Sophie Baker (Emma Stone). The lovely Sophie and her mother (Marcia Gay Harden) are staying with the wealthy Catledge family in their mansion in the Côte d'Azur, where Sophie has managed to ensnare the affections of young Brice Catledge. However, after attending a seance and having a few surprising encounters with Sophie, Stanley begins to change his mind about her and is left thoroughly shaken by evidence that her clairvoyant abilities just might be real.

My thoughts:

This was a very pretty movie -- the light throughout was actually magical. Unfortunately, that amazing light was just about the best thing about the film. I think it's possible I've outgrown Woody Allen. Which makes me sad because he used to be one of my favorite filmmakers -- Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, Manhattan, and Manhattan Murder Mystery are among my all-time favorite movies. But the only one of the later films I've really enjoyed was Midnight in Paris. I always have high hopes for each new release, but I keep getting disappointed. 

It's not a terrible movie -- definitely not as annoying as To Rome with Love or as mean-spirited as Blue Jasmine. And it had some really fine performances -- Eileen Atkins as Aunt Vanessa, and the enormously talented Simon McBurney as Stanley's friend Howard particularly stand out. On the other hand, Marcia Gay Harden was pretty much wasted in the role of Sophie's mother -- more mom and less Sophie would have made for a much more interesting experience.

But, of course, Sophie was the whole point of the film: the young girl who represents renewal and new life for the aging curmudgeonly male at the film's center. Love and youth as some sort of salvation. She's in nearly every one of Allen's films these days, and she seems to be getting younger and younger. In this one, she is quite literally young enough to be the curmudgeon's daughter. OK, I don't really know how old Emma Stone is, but in the movie she looks about twelve. And the film's boyish 1920s-era fashions only exaggerate that childlike appearance (indeed, at one point she's dressed in a sailor outfit, oddly reminiscent of the Von Trapp children in The Sound of Music). In a way it's interesting to see the same trope used over and over in each new film, but it's also becoming truly disturbing.

My IMDb Rating: 5 stars out of a possible 10