Review: “Magic in the Moonlight”

Tired tricks from charming Woody.

There’s a joke that Woody Allen has done a few times in his movies, that sums up the lead character in his latest film. When asked if he’s of the Jewish persuasion, Woody replies, “I used to be, but then I converted to narcissism.” The most notable trait that lead characters in most of his projects share is a piece of his own personality. Usually, they are sarcastic but polite, snooty (towards the snooty) but smart to a fault, and neurotic to the core, constantly analyzing and overanalyzing what they and others have said. My stomach is hurting just thinking about it all…

In Magic in the Moonlight, Colin Firth plays the Woody surrogate — this time, as a popular magician, known for his bombastic debunking of so called mystics and mediums. He’s so proud of his own atheistic ideals, that just about every sentence is related to how there is nothing beyond this reality, and that anyone that says otherwise is pulling an illusion over simple minded folk. I don’t want to use the phrase “one dimensional” when it comes to a Woody Allen film, but I’m afraid I’m gonna have to. At least, for the first half.

As things move along, our master magician meets a spiritual medium he’s been asked to disgrace, played by Emma Stone. Her “mental vibrations” and “impressions” are so obviously put ons, but are still able to fool the wealthy rubes around her. Colin Firth plays no easy rube, so he says. However, some kind of spell does befall him, one he chooses to ignore for the longest time — love. I’d argue that it’s most easy to fall for Emma Stone, as she not only is quite a looker, but beams of infectious chutzpah and glee. She mostly just plays herself, almost not fitting in with the time period the movie is set in. Maybe we’re just noticing the peculiarity that Firth sees?

It’s possible that the superficiality on display in the characters and what they say in Magic in the Moonlight is a purposeful reflection of the superficiality inherent in presuming you know everything about everything. Or in being easily fooled. Or in life in general. Despite multiple dimensions (maybe) being present within just one, the element proper of romance is not something I prominently felt. Aside from saying he and she are smitten, little is done to express the main romance. They have almost no reason to be together.

On second thought — doesn’t love and faith work in much the same curious way? Hmm. Either way, Magic in the Moonlight is bland at its worst, and thought provoking and charming at its best. Neither here nor there. A sort of magic trick, perhaps.

2.5 / 5 *s