Review of Hollywood Ending (2002) by Yuri M — 29 Aug 2007

Even a lousy Woody Allen comedy usually has one or two hilarious and original moments. Not this one, though. The premise is promising, but Allen fails to deliver. The script is lazy and hackneyed. All the characters are trite and predictable.

The dialogue contains no traces of usual Allen?s wit and tartness. Tea Lioni is often insipid, Messing is cartoonish but never funny, while Allen embarrasses himself and ruins his part. His part would require a fine actor or, at least, a competent one (with enough skill to convincingly imitate blindness).

However, Allen is not an actor by any stretch of the imagination. Moreover, on this occasion he?s almost equally incompetent as a director. Indeed, Allen himself seems to have been affected by hysterical blindness while directing the film.