Colin Firth plays a stage magician touring Europe in the Twenties. He's professionally successful, but personally unpopular. We know that because he plays to large audiences and yells at his assistants and crew members backstage. If that's too subtle, a fellow magician tells him that he may be successful, but he's a terrible person. Firth is further isolated because there's no one above him. At least, that he acknowledges. We know that because he calls himself a genius, derides his colleagues and announces loudly, frequently and without provocation that he is a devout atheist. Anyone, of course, who believes in a higher power is beneath both him and his contempt.
Firth's character, named Stanley and known professionally as Wei Ling Soo, is called to the South of France to investigate an allegedly fake medium, who is financially exploiting a wealthy, but mourning family. Her name is Sophie and she's embodied - or disembodied - by Emma Stone. Stanley is immediately attracted to Sophie because she looks like, well, Emma Stone. She is likewise attracted to him because he looks like Colin Firth. (By the way, his character seems to be equal parts pride and prejudice. Hmmm.) There are no complications. Instead, we have a Sisyphean romance, in which they push the boulder of their mutual attraction up a steep hill until it becomes a pebble of affection, which they mistake for love because the movie is almost over.
It's a tribute to Colin Firth's skill and dedication as an actor that he can say the line, "What you see is what you get" without sounding like Flip Wilson. He can also perform what is, essentially, the last scene of
My Fair Lady without breaking into "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face." Emma Stone is pretty enough to play gorgeous, but she needs help - preferably from the script. Wendy Hiller, for instance, covers a lot more distance between the two in the last scene of the 1938 film,Pygmalion (how that play comes up!) but she was helped by three major talents at their peak, George Bernard Shaw, Leslie Howard and the director, Anthony Asquith.
Magic In The Moonlight (2014) shows that Woody Allen is a master craftsman. He can, no doubt, compile a film script in minutes. He should, however, devote more time to the art of screenwriting. To paraphrase a quote by Thomas Hobbes that is dragged through the movie, Magic In The Moonlight is hasty, brutish and not short enough.
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