Written and Directed by Woody Allen
***1/2 (three and a half stars)
Woody Allen's "Magic In The Moonlight, which I am to believe is his 46th film, does not quite scale the heights of the cunning "Match Point" (2005), the sublime "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (2008), the gorgeous "Midnight In Paris" (2011) or the visceral and bruising "Blue Jasmine" (2013) but it is also much better, richer, and deeper than the tenor of the reviews may have been leading you to believe.
For a filmmaker like Allen who does release a new film nearly every single year without fail, there is bound to be some separation of cinematic wheat and chaff due to his prolific nature. But that being said, I feel that Allen, in recent years, has been operating on a creative high, the kind of which any filmmaker would be proud to claim as their own, as he has somehow continued to create vital, provocative, entertaining works that display his singular artistic voice and vision during a time when such cinematic voices are becoming more infrequent. With "Magic In The Moonlight," Woody Allen has delivered yet another late Summer treat that will satiate and satisfy those of you who wish to take a break from the CGI explosions and cacophony and see films that feature people and emotions with wit, skill, heart and soul.
The plot of "Magic In The Moonlight" is deceptively simple. Set in the south of France in the 1928, Colin Firth, in a marvelous performance, portrays Stanley, a world famous magician and world class belligerent misanthrope who performs under the Asian identity of Wei Ling Soo. After one evening's performance on a tour stop in Berlin, Stanley is greeted backstage by his childhood friend and fellow illusionist Howard Burkan (played by Simon McBurney), who invites Stanley to the French Riviera to visit the Catledges, a wealthy family who has been taken in by a young clairvoyant named Sophie (Emma Stone, terrific as usual). Howard, knowing of Stanley's pessimistic and frankly, nihilistic worldview, desires for him to disprove Sophie's skills and reveal her to be a fraud, especially as the Catledges' son Brice (Hamish Linklater) has grown so fond of Sophie that he wishes to marry her. Stanley agrees to the trip with relish as he seemingly loves nothing more than debunking the actions of charlatans.
But to Stanley's surprise, a variety of situations and circumstances continuously arrive in which Sophie possesses a window into a level of knowledge that she could not possibly know...unless her skills as a mystic were indeed true, thus upending Stanley's view of the universe as menacing and meaningless. And needless to say, matters are further complicated when the ice around Stanley's heart begins to thaw towards the beguiling, optimistic and possibly magical Sophie.
As you would expect with any Woody Allen feature, "Magic In The Moonlight" is a visually sumptuous production that works as a romantic comedy mystery and once again may inspire viewers to dust off their passports and make travel plans. With superior aid from Cinematographer Darius Khondji, Production Designer Anne Seibel and Costume Designer Sonia Grande, the film is a feast fr the eyes, so rich in detail that it could almost be called "Gatsby-esque." Additionally, it is as blissful to regard aurally as it is visually, as there simply is no writer on the planet who constructs dialogue as Woody Allen is so supremely able to accomplish. The film is simply a pleasure to listen to and with the cast Allen has assembled, all of whom deliver top notch performances, the words and dialogue just sing magnificently.
"Magic In The Moonlight," on the surface may seem to feel and sound like one of Allen's lighter, frothier films, the kind of which that doesn't exactly break new ground, yet is pleasing while watching but also does tend to evaporate after a spell. Yes, the film is light and frothy like his Italian romantic comedy "To Rome With Love" (2012), but unlike that film and others like "Scoop" (2002), is the seriously profound core of the film that propels the narrative and informs all of the actions and perceptions of the characters. Essentially, "Magic In The Moonlight" is a hefty and spirited philosophical debate between two characters on the nature of our existence. Where Stanley is vehemently the champion of the intellect, Science and all things which can be seen and proven without any shadow of a doubt, Sophie represents the possibility of more plus the powerfully additional fact that as human beings, we simply do not know if anything exists beyond the material world or not.
Certainly, this is not new territory for Woody Allen at all as he has explored this existential theme time and again but what makes it so vital each and every time is the fact that he is asking existential questions that cannot be answered and the debate that ensues between the characters is the same ongoing debate that he is having with us in the audience and I would assume the very same debate that he is having with himself, especially as the man is not getting any younger and the finite nature of his life is more imminent despite the velocity of his productivity.
What is more, and especially as Allen himself is admittedly quite the nihilist, is how he does not simply claim his main protagonist of Stanley as the hero who is obviously the one who holds every correct opinion in the film. Quite conversely, Allen is highly critical of Stanley and his massive egotism, weary jadedness, tiresome malcontent, and insufferable sense of superiority in addition to his atheist worldview by placing him into a story that firmly challenges his every belief. What if everything that you held to be true was somehow proven to be wrong? Is it a life worth living if one sees no point or hopefulness at all? And on the opposite side of the philosophical coin, even if one did possess a hopefulness and optimism, what is the purposefulness of life itself if it just only leads to nothingness?
As previously stated, Colin Firth is outstanding in the leading role as he projects such a painfully unctuous dominance that is as believable as it is funny. Yet, he also discovers the various layers in which to play this character as to not make him a one-note joke. Firth makes Allen's creation fully three dimensional. Late in the film, there is an extraordinary sequence when Stanley, faced with some anguishing news about his beloved Aunt Vanessa (beautifully played by Eileen Atkins), finds himself performing a serious bit of soul searching. Firth is the sole presence on-screen as he delivers a brilliantly written monologue that approaches heights that I found to be Shakespearian as it confronted ideas of the possible validity and/or futility of prayer and the belief or non-belief in some entity higher than our own humanity.
With "Magic In The Moonlight," what Woody Allen has proven once again is that all light comedies do not need to be inane, shamelessly vulgar and insipidly stupid to be funny and therefore memorable. That comedy can be smart. That comedy can be the source of exploring how we do eventually look outward towards the universe and inwardly into ourselves. And because of Allen's unquestionable skills, it has surprised me to see how dismissive quite a number of critics have been towards his latest film.
As I said previously, I do understand that for a filmmaker as prolific as Woody Allen, not everything can be the stuff of genius. But this time, I am feeling that what we are witnessing with some critics is that they are reviewing the controversy of Woody Allen's personal life as well as his persona and not reviewing exactly what is on the screen. For the purposes of this posting, I find any sense of controversy in Allen's personal life irrelevant to what he places on screen as an artist.
Certainly some critics do not feel as I do about this matter but in the case of "Magic In The Moonlight," I am feeling that they are grasping at straws when they complain that here we have another film in which the romantic figures are an older male actor and a decidedly younger female actress, and how this element must figure into Allen's personal life. Those same critics have also complained that the film is essentially Woody Allen once again expressing the sentiment that "the heart wants what it wants," an observation that I not only disagree with but it is one that I think gives what is on-screen tremendously short shrift as it is not looking at the value that is actually present. And even then, and even more preposterous is the assertion through a couple of articles that I have seen questioning Woody Allen's racial politics as no prominent Black actors have ever been featured in his films.
Dear readers, I have no problem whatsoever if these critics and even some of you make these observations or hold these very same questions regarding Woody Allen's work. But in this case, it all just feels like a way to take a personal swipe at this figure over situations that we will never, ever be fully informed about in the first place. And frankly, if you are going to a Woody Allen film to find Black people, then you are indeed looking at the wrong movie!! All facetiousness aside, if you wish to discuss issues of sexism, with regards to love stories that feature older males and younger females, and racism, regarding the lack of visible Black actors in the movies, then there is indeed a conversation that desperately needs to be had. But that conversation has to include the entirety of the film industry, which includes the white filmmakers that you do not take issue with. The very issues that Allen is being criticized for are not "Woody Allen issues," they are all "movie industry issues" and should be treated as such.
All of that being said, in regards to what I saw with "Magic In The Moonlight," contained nothing that was overtly or subjectively controversial as the breadth of the material was handled with inclusiveness, intelligence and a literary and philosophical wit that is peerless in the movies today. It was a film that honestly surprised me with its depth as well as it entertained me with its warmth, humor and sharply written dialogue.
"Magic In The Moonlight," while not being one of the GREAT Woody Allen films, is definitely a damn good one and well worth your time, effort and finances to see for yourselves.
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