An average movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have been following Woody Allen’s career for more than 20 years, I was still quite eager to check it out. Well, eventually, even this movie wasn’t one of his worst, it wasn’t one of his best either. I mean, the whole thing was pretty neat to look at and it was probably one of his most gorgeous movies visually speaking (I’m not surprised that it turned out to be his most expensive movie so far). Unfortunately, even if the story was not completely boring, it was borderline weak and even lazy. For example, I thought there was some dramatic curve missing. Indeed, first, you get to see the main character going to Hollywood and, without too much effort, he gets a decent job and a very nice girl. Then, he goes to New York and, again, without too much effort, he gets an even better job and another very nice girl. Even later on when he meets again his former love, still nothing really dramatic occurred. At least, Jesse Eisenberg was a fine choice to play the lead, obviously representing a younger version than Woody Allen, but at least it wasn’t completely unbelievable that such girls like Kristen Stewart or Blake Lively would fall for him. On the other hand, I think it was the first time I saw Kristen Stewart playing in a period piece and, to be honest, she wasn’t really convincing. To make things worse, I don’t think that she had much chemistry with either Jesse Eisenberg or Steve Carrell. Concerning Carrell, I guess he was not bad but he didn’t really impress me either and I wish they stuck with Bruce Willis (who was apparently fired and replaced by Allen) who would have been an interesting choice for this part. Finally, for me, it was pretty much impossible to watch this movie without thinking about the shenanigans in Woody Allen’s private life as he famously married the adopted daughter of his girlfriend. With this movie, it seems that he once again tried to argue that, when you are in love, there is nothing you can do about it and that it can happen to anyone at any moment in time. In this case, he completely downplayed the fact that Vonnie was constantly switching between an older man and his nephew. Seriously, there is not a single moment during which she paused to acknowledge the fact that what she was doing might be slightly messed up. In my opinion, it was rather awkward but it was also quite reminiscent with Allen’s own behavior. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was another forgettable effort from Woody Allen, I guess it is still worth a look but only if you are really interested in this director. 

6/10