Magician Stanley Crawford (Colin Firth) is seeking to debunk spiritual medium Sophie Baker (Emma Stone) in Woody Allen’s MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT
MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT (Woody Allen, 2014)
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For his follow-up to Blue Jasmine, his best film in years, Woody Allen has returned to his love of prestidigitation and the possibility of a spirit world in Magic in the Moonlight, topics he has tackled before, with varying degrees of success, in Scoop, Alice, A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy, the Broadway play The Floating Light Bulb, and the short story “Examining Psychic Phenonema,” in which he wrote, “There is no question that there is an unseen world. The problem is, how far is it from midtown, and how late is it open?” Unfortunately, there is nothing nearly as sharp in Magic in the Moonlight, an ultimately lackluster and disappointing foray into the mysterious realm of spirit mediums, despite a luminous performance by Emma Stone. Allen, who used to make films almost exclusively in New York City, now ventures to the French Riviera of the 1920s after journeys to Rome, Paris, London, and Barcelona in previous recent works. Stone stars as Sophie Baker, a beautiful young woman who claims to be able to read minds and contact the dead, which distresses Stanley Crawford (Colin Firth), who performs as the famous Asian magician Wei Ling Soo and is dedicated to unmasking frauds, believing that there is nothing beyond our earthbound realm. (The premise is loosely based on the psychic-busting career of magician Harry Houdini, who was desperate to find a real connection to the dead.) Stanley is invited by his longtime friend and colleague, magician Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney), to disprove the psychic abilities of Miss Baker, who has been impressing the wealthy Catledge family, including the widowed matriarch, Grace (Jacki Weaver), and her son, Brice (Hamish Linklater), the heir and scion absolutely smitten with Sophie. However, daughter Caroline (Erica Leerhsen) and her husband, George (Jeremy Shamos), don’t trust Sophie and her mother (Marcia Gay Harden) and want Stanley to debunk them before they get their hands on the family fortune. At first Stanley is sure that they are frauds only after money, but soon enough he starts changing his tune, wondering if everything he has believed in has been wrong.
Marcia Gay Harden, Hamish Linklater, Colin Firth, and Emma Stone fail to bring magic to MOONLIGHT
Magic in the Moonlight never feels fully formed, like a magic trick that doesn’t come together to completely take in the audience. While Stone, who is beautifully lit by Darius Khondji, is charming as the possible medium, Firth struggles to develop a tangible chemistry with her, and Brice’s ukulele-laden puppy-dog courtship of Sophie is just plain silly. The film looks great — Darius Khondji’s costumes are wonderful, as is Anne Seibel’s production design, and it’s always a pleasure to see Eileen Atkins, here portraying Stanley’s bohemian aunt — but the problem really begins and ends with Allen’s flat script, as funny jokes, one-liners, and any sense of mystery disappear quicker than the elephant in the opening scene and numerous twists border on the cringeworthy, a rarity for the Woodman, even in his lesser works, of which Magic in the Moonlight is certainly one.