Review of Love and Death (2013) by Eva E — 21 Sep 2010

Love and Death is a novel idea, because of all the spoofs---Airplane!, The Naked Gun, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, these horrible new ones like Meet the Spartans and Superhero Movie---Love and Death parodies things none of those other filmmakers would think to. The main thread of the plot is framed like a Russian novel with direct hints at Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, complete with imposed philosophical debates, and freely sprinkled across the film are direct send-ups of Ingmar Bergman films, namely Persona and Smiles of a Summer Night.

Woody Allen, in what he has claimed to be his favorite of the few films he's made with which he's been satisfied, plays his normal nebbishy caricature which fits quite well into the context of his references, a scholar who is forced to enlist in the Russian Army, desperate and disappointed hearing the news that his cousin, played with a hilarious callousness by Diane Keaton, is to wed a herring merchant. In one of the film's funnier moments, Woody captures a group of enemy soldiers by accident, but to no avail, as the French reach Moscow immediately afterward. He returns and marries the recently widowed Keaton who really does not want to marry Boris, but promises him she will when she thinks he is about to be killed in a duel. She coaxes him into helping her plot to kill Napoleon.

I wanted to see this film so badly, being an enormous fan of Woody Allen's work as he is amongst the very top trio of my favorite film directors. I was disappointed, though, to find this to be the most hit-or-miss of all of his comedies. It is not quite as funny as one would expect it to inevitably be, though there are some hilarious bits, usually amongst Woody's character's family and Keaton's total aloofness during tragedy. It's still nevertheless warm and entertaining, as are every single one of Woody's films.