Magic in the Moonlight
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Colin Firth, Emma Stone, Simon McBurney, Eileen Atkins, Marcia Gay Harden, Jacki Weaver, Erica Leerhsen, Jeremy Shamos, Hamish Linklater, Catherine McCormack
Rating: (PG)
Three and a half stars (out of five)
As he himself admits some of his films are better than others and after the success of Blue Jasmine last year I was not holding high hopes for Magic in the Moonlight (Rialto and Metro).
The trailers do this film no favours, concentrating on Emma Stone as con artist Sophie Baker making cow eyes at Colin Firth, who plays Stanley, the man determined to expose her.
Stone normally brings a breezy charm to her roles, but here she seems subdued and uneasy, which is a valid interpretation of the character, except that Stanley is supposed to fall in love with her.
The year is 1928, so people still frolic about in the south of France without any thought about the gathering clouds of impending disaster over Europe.
Sophie has found a rich family who think her clairvoyant gifts are for real, but a concerned family friend, Howard (Simon McBurney), calls on the services of Stanley, who is a magician who works under the stage name Wei Ling Soo and has made a hobby out of exposing fake mediums.
At first Sophie looks a pretty easy nut to crack but she knows things that he can find no logical explanation for.
Soon his head is spinning: could she be for real?
Best thing: I am still laughing at Stanley's offer of marriage to Sophie.
Worst thing: Stone seems incapable of making Sophie loveable, which leaves Firth doing all the heavy lifting.
See it with: The patience to sit through the long set up because the payoff when it comes is worth the wait.
- Christina Powley
