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For his latest film, Woody Allen uses the occult - or at least, the idea of it - as a muse that binds his ensemble together. Perhaps hoping that we've forgotten his last attempt at using the supernatural as a plot device - the forgettable Curse of the Jade Scorpion - here he comes through with marginally better, though hardly spectacular, results.
Allen sets his tale in London again, where a gaggle of locals and expatriates are leading generally miserable lives. The parental elders, Helena (Gemma Jones) and Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) have divorced in their golden years. Helena has turned to alcohol to cope, while Alfie starts working out, eventually taking up with the daft, young Charmaine (Lucy Punch). The duo's daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) is married to the useless Roy (a mop-topped Josh Brolin), who never practiced after getting his medical degree and instead dreams of success as a writer. It isn't coming. No one wants his new book, and he instead pines for the exotic girl in the window across the way (Freida Pinto). Meanwhile, Sally is considering the charms of her new boss Greg (Antonio Banderas). Binding them all together is a fortuneteller (Pauline Collins), who may be completely phony but whose predictions seem to have a tendency to always come true.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a family this dysfunctional in real life, but in Allen's universe it's pretty much the norm. The setup strongly echoes Hannah and Her Sisters, though the performances here are more blunt, and the story more wandering, less of a cohesive whole.
Fortunately, this is Allen at his more easygoing. The story is filled with chuckles, giggles, and smirks, and it's often as charming as a garden party with watercress sandwiches. The dialogue is theatrical but sharp, and some of the set pieces are really quite funny. But for all the marriages falling apart on screen, Allen sure does seem cavalier about it, treating these failing lives without a hint of irony.
And in fact, well before the ending arrives, one starts to wonder what Allen is trying to say. The film begins and ends with the old Shakespearean quote about life being all "sound and fury, signifying nothing," and it's a bleak look not just at marriage but about existence in general. Allen of course has never been Mr. Cheerful in his work, but even this film - despite being a comedy through and through - ultimately comes off as depressing. By the time 98 minutes are up, we've wandered through half a dozen lives that start off miserable and have pretty much only gotten worse by movie's end.
If I wanted to laugh at people behaving badly, I'd just watch Jersey Shore.
Allen sets his tale in London again, where a gaggle of locals and expatriates are leading generally miserable lives. The parental elders, Helena (Gemma Jones) and Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) have divorced in their golden years. Helena has turned to alcohol to cope, while Alfie starts working out, eventually taking up with the daft, young Charmaine (Lucy Punch). The duo's daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) is married to the useless Roy (a mop-topped Josh Brolin), who never practiced after getting his medical degree and instead dreams of success as a writer. It isn't coming. No one wants his new book, and he instead pines for the exotic girl in the window across the way (Freida Pinto). Meanwhile, Sally is considering the charms of her new boss Greg (Antonio Banderas). Binding them all together is a fortuneteller (Pauline Collins), who may be completely phony but whose predictions seem to have a tendency to always come true.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a family this dysfunctional in real life, but in Allen's universe it's pretty much the norm. The setup strongly echoes Hannah and Her Sisters, though the performances here are more blunt, and the story more wandering, less of a cohesive whole.
Fortunately, this is Allen at his more easygoing. The story is filled with chuckles, giggles, and smirks, and it's often as charming as a garden party with watercress sandwiches. The dialogue is theatrical but sharp, and some of the set pieces are really quite funny. But for all the marriages falling apart on screen, Allen sure does seem cavalier about it, treating these failing lives without a hint of irony.
And in fact, well before the ending arrives, one starts to wonder what Allen is trying to say. The film begins and ends with the old Shakespearean quote about life being all "sound and fury, signifying nothing," and it's a bleak look not just at marriage but about existence in general. Allen of course has never been Mr. Cheerful in his work, but even this film - despite being a comedy through and through - ultimately comes off as depressing. By the time 98 minutes are up, we've wandered through half a dozen lives that start off miserable and have pretty much only gotten worse by movie's end.
If I wanted to laugh at people behaving badly, I'd just watch Jersey Shore.
