A romantic comedy about an Englishman brought in to help unmask a possible swindle. Personal and professional complications ensue.
Unapologetic mediocrity can be so refreshing when it’s served by a master.
Charming without being laugh-out-loud funny, Magic in the Moonlight seems more intent on casting its own spell than going for the jugular.
Unfortunately, this aesthetically sunny, romantically drizzly period comedy represents another middling effort from a former movie maestro.
Will she end up with the nice, same-age millionaire who adores her, or the guy twice her age who spends most of the movie alternately patronising and insulting her? You don’t have to be clairvoyant to anticipate the answer, which is why a) Magic In The Moonlight leaks tension, and b) Allen’s movies are becoming increasingly creepy.
A notch below Allen’s recent form but still an easy, breezy soufflé. Between the regular chuckles, Riviera scenery and the sparkling Stone, you won’t feel duped.
Weightless, but not without its enchantments, this is Woody Allen coasting. But where better to coast than the loveliest coast of all?
There is a touch of Pygmalion hidden away in Magic In The Moonlight, a good dash of PG Wodehouse and a scent of Noel Coward but it is all so thinly plotted and casually flung together that even Woody Allen fans might admit that this is little more than an amusing diversion between more substantial ventures.
Woody Allen’s 20s-set mystic mystery caper has elements of charm, but Colin Firth’s stuffy conjuror is not one of them, and the directorial magic is disappointingly lacking.
Magic in the Moonlight isn't ever going to be mistaken for one of Allen's masterpieces but in its own breezy way, it is perfectly enjoyable – and a film only he would or could have made.
All the film has to offer are nice costumes and tedious pseudo-intellectual debates about the irrationality of love.
Colin Firth and Emma Stone deliver fun and romantic whimsy in Allen’s latest, but nothing memorable.
General release. Check local listings for show times.