Directed by:
Woody AllenScreenplay:
Woody AllenCinematography:
Darius KhondjiCast:
Colin Firth, Emma Stone, Antonia Clarke, Simon McBurney, Ute Lemper, Catherine McCormack, Eileen Atkins, Erica Leerhsen, Jeremy Shamos, Hamish Linklater (more)VOD (4)
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Chinese conjuror Wei Ling Soo is the most celebrated magician of his age, but few know that he is the stage persona of Stanley Crawford (Colin Firth), a grouchy and arrogant Englishman with a sky-high opinion of himself and an aversion to phony spiritualists’ claims that they can perform real magic. Persuaded by his life-long friend, Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney), Stanley goes on a mission to the Côte d’Azur mansion of the Catledge family: mother Grace (Jacki Weaver), son Brice (Hamish Linklater), and daughter Caroline (Erica Leerhsen). He presents himself as a businessman named Stanley Taplinger in order to debunk the alluring young clairvoyant Sophie Baker (Emma Stone) who is staying there with her mother (Marcia Gay Harden). Sophie arrived at the Catledge villa at the invitation of Grace, who is convinced that Sophie can help her contact her late husband, and once there, attracted the attention of Brice, who has fallen for her head over heels. From his very first meeting with Sophie, Stanley dismisses her as an insignificant pip-squeak who he can unmask in no time, scoffing at the family’s gullibility. To his great surprise and discomfort, however, Sophie accomplishes numerous feats of mind-reading and other supernatural deeds that defy all rational explanation, leaving him dumbfounded. Before long, Stanley confesses to his beloved Aunt Vanessa (Eileen Atkins) that he has begun to wonder whether Sophie’s powers could actually be real. If they were to be true, Stanley realizes that anything might be possible, even good, and his entire belief system would come crashing down. What follows is a series of events that are magical in every sense of the word and send the characters reeling. In the end, the biggest trick Magic in the Moonlight plays is the one that fools us all. (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (7)
The Prestige in Woody Allen style. Woody, however, does not delve deeply enough into the characters to make it work between them. The sparks between Colin Firth and Emma Stone work perfectly only in a single scene (the observatory) and do not work at all in the crucial last quarter of the film (after the point has been made). The two are incompatible by nature. If Woody himself played the rational wet blanket, the film would at least not be unrealistic and would not strive for an impossible romantic dimension, but it would be a pure cheerful comedy. Poor three stars.
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There were times when I looked forward to every premiere of Woody's films and didn't hesitate to sacrifice money and time for a visit to the movie theater. Those times are gone. Watching his films has started unpleasantly resembling routine checking off items on a list. He has nothing to surprise with and doesn't even attempt to. This is the second time he has used the setting of a cabaret magic show as a starting point, but The Curse of the Jade Scorpion seemed fresher and funnier to me, and it was made more for the viewer than for the indulgence of Woody's own ego. The beginning of the film looks promising. Colin Firth deservedly grabs attention and the role suits him. Emma Stone, if nothing else, is at least unique and the film somewhat works comedically until the revelation of the mystification. However, as the minutes pass, the film seems to get stuck, loses its charm, and becomes tiresome. It would be better if it had self-irony, a sense of reality, and the willingness to go beyond the threshold of emotional pain and informed sadness. The ending moves the film towards banality, one can hardly understand Sophie's choice of life partner. Woody succumbed to elderly vanity and I understand those comments that mention the word snob. Considering his previous merits, I will still give the film a weak 3 stars. In Magic in the Moonlight, a piece of Woody's life philosophy appears, partly taking inspiration from Oscar Wilde's legacy, but it's far from being one of his peak films. Overall impression: 50%.
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This is a nice little film that seems to have actually been made in the late 1920s. By a slight coincidence, it features contemporary actors. Absolutely magnificent. Have I honestly ever not loved something that offered me Berlin in 1928? It would be very foolish to even expect such a thing. Of course, I can also never get enough of Colin, and that surprises me.
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The equivalent of a garden party clown you know exactly what to expect from. Nothing miraculous, but solidly performed craft where you know and can see through every magic trick, but that’s also what you are expecting from it and that’s what you are getting. But with Woody Allen you might expect him to pull something of Copperfield-type dimensions out of the hat after all and not to satisfy himself with something cute and trivial. Maybe in the next show.
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It's a magically kind film, with a wickedly funny Colin Firth, the wonderful atmosphere of South France and the 1920s, and the message that "we need illusions to live", which Woody Allen used in Shadows and Fog (and elsewhere), but I don't mind that in the least. That I discovered the point before the movie revealed it? So what? Magic in the Moonlight is neither the pinnacle of Allen's filmography nor a groundbreaking title. It is, however, a cute comedy made exactly in the spirit of "memory" films, which either doesn't offend or delights. But I bet that it cannot disappoint. "He started out as a snake man. An interesting choice when someone wants to get away from reality."
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