Left: "Magic" stars Colin Firth and Emma Stone
“I don’t think he means to
imply that your mother and brother are morons.”
So says Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney) of his friend Stanley Crawford
(Colin Firth) in “Magic in the Moonlight.”
But he’s quite wrong.
Stanley—cantankerous and always gleefully snobbish—loves offending
everyone. He may be 1920s stage
magician, but he prefers giddy cynicism to well-coifed charm.
Which makes Stanley a perfect avatar for Woody Allen, who
directed the film from his own screenplay.
Mr. Allen’s characters (especially the ones he plays himself) are often
antsy skeptics, though “Magic in the Moonlight” isn’t as richly entertaining as
his previous forays into the world of stage gimmickry (“The Curse of the Jade
Scorpion” and “Scoop”). No, this is
Allen light—listless, airy, and amusing.
What life force the movie does possess is derived from a
strange complication—Howard’s request that Stanley debunk the antics of the
young American spiritualist named Sophie Baker (Emma Stone). Wide-eyed and awestruck, Sophie reads minds
and even communicates with the dead, though Stanley isn’t fooled. He just wants to expose Sophie’s adorable
charlatanism and get back to London.
There’s a zesty energy to Stanley’s needling of Sophie,
particularly during the scenes when he snidely asks her to probe his thoughts. Ultimately, however, that all fades as the
movie slops into pudding-flavored romance, which isn’t convincing for a minute. “I just want to hold her in my arms,” Stanley
says after Sophie’s peppery serenity finally wears through his grumpy armor. But despite Mr. Firth’s impeccable delivery,
he can’t make us believe that someone as cranky as Stanley could change so
drastically.
Still, you could have done a lot worse at the multiplexes
this summer. Mr. Allen may let the fizz
drain out of the plot once Stanley falls for Sophie (he should have let their
sparring continue, to fuel both the conflict and the comedy), but the film’s
South of France setting is captured with soft-focused beauty (by the gifted
cinematographer Darius Khonji) and the movie’s debate between cheeky atheism
and wide-eyed wonder makes its more resonant than you’d expect it to be.
Best of all, “Magic in the Moonlight” is a fine showcase
for Mr. Firth. He makes a great comedic
buffoon, but he has something else—a nervy vitality that keeps the movie on its
toes. “Come with me,” Stanley demands
when he tells Sophie he’s going to visit his aunt. Hardly a provocative proposal, but Mr.
Firth’s suave energy makes it seem vibrantly seductive, even if most of the
movie isn’t.
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