Review of Magic in the Moonlight (2014) by Alan W — 25 Sep 2014

Another year; another Woody Allen film and the trailer will have you think this is one of his lesser, fluffier efforts and that you can already sussed out the story and guessed how this romantic story will end.

I will admit that the ending is terribly predictable, so that part is true; but the trailer only showed scenes from the first act of the film which turned out to be another one of Allen's slightly rambling attempt to sugarcoat his philosophical meditations into the meaning of life and death with the glistening shell of a romantic comedy and it is also quite fun to watch.

Much of that is down to the immensely watchable trio of Stone, Firth and Aitkens. There are two scenes towards the end of this film which show not only the brilliance of these actors but also the genius that is Woody Allen the writer.

Those scenes are so well performed and so elegantly and charmingly written, that they manage to elevate a ho-hum rom-com into something, well, almost magical.