An average movie

The most interesting about this movie is that it came at a turning point in Woody Allen's career. Indeed, until that point, in spite of the dramatic shenanigans in his private life, Allen had managed to release one movie virtually every year for almost 50 years without any trouble whatsoever. However, after this movie was released, Allen got caught up in the whole #MeToo movement and his career pretty much crashed and burned. He still managed to make 2 movies since then ('A Rainy Day in New York' and 'Rifkin's Festival') but, at this point, you might wonder if he shouldn't call it quits and just retire. Concerning the movie itself, well, to be honest, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing. I mean, it was visually quite a beautiful movie (no wonder that he worked with the same cinematographer he used for ‘Café Society’) and it was pretty neat to spend some time in Coney Island during the 50’s. However, even though I did like the fact that it was for once dealing with a middle-aged woman, unfortunately, she got entangled in another misguided love triangle, some gimmick used other and other again by this director. Above all, as usual, his approach was rather icky regarding this subject. Basically, Mickey starts an affair with Ginny (who happens to be married) and then falls in love with Carolina (who happens to be Ginny’s stepdaughter) which was, in my opinion, rather messed up. However, in Allen’s world, there is nothing really wrong in Mickey’s behaviour and choices because there is basically nothing you can do when you fall in love, some kind of Mantra Woody Allen has kept repeating ever since he himself fell in love with his girlfriend’s daughter more than 25 years ago. The other thing that bothered me with this movie was that it was, in my opinion, rather misogynistic. Indeed, while Mickey’s actions were deemed acceptable, Ginny, in spite of a really solid performance by Kate Winslet, was described as a selfish, moody and even borderline hysterical multiple home wrecker. They didn’t spend so much time on Carolina but they were not really kind with this young woman either. Indeed, pretty much all her decisions were considered as at best unwise but they always had a dramatic outcome not only for her but also for the people around her. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was another rather weak effort from this director, I guess it is still worth a look though, especially if you are interested in Woody Allen’s work.