An average movie

Even though this movie didn’t get much love when it was released, since I have been following Woody Allen for more than 20 years by now, I still wanted to check it out. Eventually, at first, I really loved the concept. Indeed, I always had a weak spot for illusionists and I thought it was pretty neat to see one trying to unmask a spiritualist. On top of that, the lead character was just hilarious and perfectly played by Colin Firth so it started to look like one of the best movies delivered by Allen in years. Unfortunately, half way through, he made a really poor decision which ruined this movie and the whole thing never recovered afterwards. Indeed, at some point, Stanley starts to believe that Sophie is actually the real deal when she was obviously a fraud. It was so stupid, I was really rolling my eyes and, to make things worse, the guy became somehow terribly joyful after making this ‘discovery’.  This decision completely messed up the tone. Then, for a while, the movie got stuck in this mode and, suddenly,  Stanley woke up and decided she was still a fraud after all, unmasking her really easily within the next 5 minutes which made his previous change of mood even more meaningless. Basically, it was yet another directing effort from Allen which had a great concept but it was just so poorly developed, it made the whole thing rather underwhelming to behold. To conclude, fortunately, the whole thing looked gorgeous and Colin Firth was just really awesome here so I still think it is a worth a look but don’t expect anything really amazing before watching it.