Magic in the Moonlight
2014
**½
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Colin Firth, Emma Stone, Hamish Linklater, Marcia Gay Harden, Jacki Weaver, Erica Leerhsen, Eileen Atkins, Simon McBurney
In the 1920s, a renowned magician is asked to travel to the French Riviera to expose a psychic medium as a fraud before she manages to take advantage of a wealthy American family. The magician is a skeptic misanthrope, but ultimately helpless to the charms of the beautiful clairvoyant. After the excellent Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen churns out another forgettable Europe-set romantic comedy. It brings together many of his recurrent themes (magic tricks and atheism, to mention a few), but the story and the characters are just too familiar to leave a lasting impression. Colin Firth and Emma Stone give likeable performances, but their 28-year age difference kills the romance.
