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Motion Picture Reviews by Thomas Ormsby

moonlight

Not all of Woody Allen's movies are great. In recent efforts, he hit a high mark with Midnight in Paris in 2011, but faltered somewhat with the lesser To Rome With Love, and now, he has stumbled badly with Magic in the Moonlight, which can easily be regarded as Woody Allen meets The Great Gatsby. There is much in this movie to back up that assertion, in that both stories feature a generous whipped-up froth of elaborate sets, terrific locations and gorgeous period costumes that ultimately are exposed as an airy camoflauge to flesh out sadly hollow characters acting out a disappointing screenplay, all filmed in that same orange tint used in the cereal commericials of a decade ago. It should've all worked, but Allen's story simply has so little substance that the visuals are insufficient to validate the characters, or this movie.

The picture above sums up rather well the enthusiasm that the cast and director had for this project.

--Thomas Ormsby

See also my reviews of Boyhood, The Hundred Foot Journey, A Most Wanted Man and Fury . . . and my gallery of six new original works of digital art.

Motion Picture Reviews by Thomas Ormsby