I was delighted to read the other day that Hollywood is having its worst summer in eight years at the box offices. Why, you might ask?
Transformers. X-Men. Marauding apes. Tom Cruise.
Last summer, we had the glory of two...count 'em...two movies that were actually watchable and therefore enjoyable. "The Way, Way Back" and Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine."
Luckily, the latter director offers up a new movie every July and we finally got the 2014 edition. While "Magic in the Moonlight" might not be one of the Woodman's greatest, it certainly was entertaining and much better than what the critics said. But, then again, I should be the only reviewer you really need to pay attention to.
Woody's latest is a breath of fresh air. A cool breeze that is blowing through a dank and desperate Hollywood box office. Along with the previously reviewed "Jersey Boys," "Magic in the Moonlight" is finally that summer movie discerning adults have been waiting to see. As long as their last name isn't Farrow.
It's been fashionable to be a Woody hater again. Mia Farrow and a few of those dozen adopted kids have been voicing their dissent of their former hubby and dad one more time. Okay, let's forget that Mia Farrow would have had zero career in the 80s and 90s without Woody Allen. I'm sure those kids were well taken care of. Yes, it's a bit sick and twisted to date and then marry your adopted daughter. But, I don't think Ms. Farrow is all that normal either. As a matter of fact, everything I have ever heard is that she's freakin' nuts.
But, I digress. I look past Woody's private life because he's given me so much enjoyment in his public career. I mean, the guy's made 49 films in 48 years. There have been some gems.
"Annie Hall."
"Manhattan."
"Hannah and Her Sisters."
"Radio Days."
There have been some mediocre ones, for sure. But, regardless of the quality, a Woody Allen movie is never uninteresting. Like director Clint Eastwood, he always knows how to tell a story that will, at the very least, hold your attention.
He does that and a bit more with "Magic in the Moonlight." As I wrote earlier, critics have said this is a lesser effort from the writer/director. I found it quite charming and, at times, out loud funny. It won't win Oscars, but, for a summer movie in 2014, it's really the only thing out there.
This time, Woody's focusing on the 1920s in Europe. Colin Firth is this super-practical magician who, while dressed as a Chinese guy, creates great illusions that he will readily admit are just that. Illusions. Firth is so disbelieving of magic and anything that isn't stark reality that his hilarious rants sound like they could have been voiced by Woody himself in a dozen other films.
Colin is employed to visit a family of aristocrats living in the south of France. They have been bedeviled by a young American woman who specializes in contacting spirits and the dead. She's played by Emma Stone, who I happen to believe will be married to me in another life. Have I ever told you how much I dig her?
I digress again.
Firth's mission is to debunk Stone and expose her as a fraud. Except she seems to know a lot about him, too. Is she real? Is she fake? One thing Colin knows is that she's damn cute. And have I ever told you how much I dig Emma Stone?
Of course, you and the rest of the audience knows where this connection is going to go. The plot's not that original, but the fun is watching how it develops even if you saw every plot turn ten minutes before it happens. The dialogue is crisp. The photography of the French countryside is magnificent. The acting is top notch. And, have I ever told you how much I dig Emma Stone?
While "Magic in the Moonlight" isn't FUNNY and CHARMING, it's still funny and charming in a way that is well worth your time in an air conditioned theater this summer. And, as an added bonus, nothing blows up. There are no computer graphics. And the world is not coming to an end tomorrow.
All this Woody Allen movie is good natured entertainment. Anybody got a problem with that??
LEN'S RATING: Three and a half stars.
Dinner last night: Ham sandwich.
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