“How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,/Seem to me all the uses of this world!”
Hamlet, literature’s most famous pessimist, finds his cynicism born anew in Stanley Crawford (Colin Firth), the wallowing, egocentric prestidigitator of Woody Allen’s latest film, “Magic in the Moonlight” (2014). The character is nothing new to Allen’s films — Allen played similar “artist” personalities himself in “Annie Hall” (1977) and “Manhattan” (1979), notable for their neuroticism and hopelessness.
Channeling the sardonic wit of vintage Allen, Stanley sets out to disprove the powers of claimed clairvoyant Sophie Baker (Emma Stone). A magician himself, Stanley scoffs at warnings from his colleague (Simon McBurney) that Sophie is the real deal and monomaniacally pursues the endearing, red-headed Moby Dick of deceit.
If you’re familiar with Allen, it doesn’t take a bloodhound to sniff out the potential for romance here. The film begins with a classic screwball comedy skeleton — a busybody man is engaged to a rigid, bland wife until he meets a bubbly, uninhibited woman who throws his world off its axis. While it worked well in screwball classics like “Bringing Up Baby” (1938) and “His Girl Friday” (1940), Allen is surprisingly unsuccessful at using this frame to deliver laughs.
French comic theorist Henri Bergson’s fundamental tenet of humor was that the “mechanical encrusted upon the living” prompts laughter. Stanley is mechanically one-track minded, while Sophie is a lively flapper girl — throw them together, and Bergson predicts comedy should ensue. Yet in “Magic in the Moonlight,” audiences view only a budding romance.
The responsibility for this failure falls on Firth, who cannot deliver his part’s pessimistic jibes with the same comic punch as Allen playing Alvy Singer or Isaac Davis. Firth is no nebbish, neurotic schlemiel, and audiences have been conditioned to take him too seriously since his performances in “The King’s Speech” (2010) and “A Single Man” (2009).
Sophie’s exuberance and seemingly legitimate psychic and telekinetic abilities chisel away at Stanley’s inflexible, hardened psyche. The misanthropic crusader transforms into a lovestruck, rose tinted glasses donning romantic. Stanley admits, “I came to unmask her, but she unmasked me.”
Notorious for his agnosticism, Allen uses Firth as his own medium, weaving his Nietzsche-esque “God is dead” sermon throughout Stanley’s existential diatribes. But if there is a universal theme that unifies Allen’s films, it is that love provides a safe haven from life’s senselessness. Stanley desperately wants to join the human race, but he cannot due to his crustiness. Sophie is his portal, his medium, into the mystery and magic of life. She is, as Stanley says, “proof that there is more in life.”
This film boils down to an off-brand version of “Annie Hall,” adding magicians and subtracting the big laughs. Though the film includes its own magic trick, pulling the rug out from under audiences near the end, the effect of this device cannot compare to magician movies like “The Prestige” (2006).
What Allen lacks in comedy he tries to make up for in cinematography and setting. The faded urban landscapes of “Annie Hall” are replaced with views of sprawling vistas and catalogue-worthy country mansions, sumptuous glimpses of 1920s Jazz Age Berlin and England. Having begun his directorial career not knowing which way to point the camera in “What’s New Pussycat?” (1965), Allen now flexes his cinematic muscles in his 44th picture.
Ultimately, however, the film is a cocktail of past Allen themes, worked into a plot that features magicians. Following the momentum of New Wave Woody hits (films not starring himself) like “Midnight in Paris” (2011) and “Blue Jasmine” (2013), “Magic in the Moonlight” feels like a step backward. This isn’t entirely unwelcome as Allen’s illustrious past deserves some revisiting. When you’re pumping out a new movie each year, not all are going to be hits. The film itself is classic Allen: pessimistic yet romantic, unfulfilled yet silver-lined.
Rating: 8.0/10
“Magic in the Moonlight” is currently playing at the Nugget Theater.
