Magic in the Moonlight

Dustin: 3.5 of 5 stars Nick: 2.5 of 5 stars Average: 3 of 5 stars (Woozy canary)

Dustin: Magic in the Moonlight is the latest comedy from Woody Allen. It stars Colin Firth and Emma Stone as two star-crossed lovers. Firth has long been a magician/huckster calling himself Wei Ling Soo, posing as an Oriental magician performing magic tricks that would have impressed 1930s audiences. Stone is a medium employed by a wealthy family to communicate with a dead father. Firth is tasked with outing Stone as the fraud she is. But the more he’s exposed to her, the more he believes she’s the real deal, and starts believing there’s more to life than his previous, cynical worldview allowed.

Nick: The actors carried this film. Especially Firth’s Aunt Vanessa (Eileen Atkins). She’s the only character throughout the film who made me laugh, and since the film is supposed to be a romantic comedy I took that pleasingly. Firth was in his least likable role as Stanley, aka Wei Ling Soo. His character never becomes more likable, though just a little less irritating. Although I liked his facial expressions and mannerisms while performing such a character.

Dustin: I liked his character, but for the wrong reason. I was actually able to relate to his cynicism. Whenever there’s a movie with a love-triangle like this (Stone’s character is being wooed by one of her wealthy marks), usually there’s a cynical older man and a simple, pathetic younger man who worships the girl (see My Fair Lady). I agree the actors carried this movie. But I also thought the dialogue was very well written. It was witty and dry, the actors (most of whom are Brits) delivered the lines beautifully. My main criticism of the film is that it’s thoroughly predictable. As soon as the main conflict was presented in the first act, I could have told you the rest of the story without actually seeing it. It was the acting that elevated this above the material.

Nick: You are right about the writing of the dialogue and the way the actors presented that dialogue, but the writing of the story seemed very straight-forward. Nothing was intriguing or surprising. I think maybe having the younger suitor present little more of a competition to Colin Firth’s character would have helped immensely. Stone doesn’t have much to choose from.  A wealthy magician, around 28 years her senior in real life, who might be one of the most cynical characters in cinema history or a wealthy child-adult her own age who makes up odes on the spot using his trusted ukulele. I’m pretty sure I wanted her to end up alone because that would have been best for her. Also every occurrence that drove the plot was so random and simple it always felt like a romantic cliche I’ve seen in older films. The car breaks down in the rain immediately after Firth tells Stone he knows cars, while later in the film his Aunt gets in a car crash, serves truly no purpose to the story, and during that time away from Stone he finally finds out the way she performs just because it is what the story needed at the moment for there to be a climax to lead to the resolution.

Dustin: I agree for the most part. I enjoyed this movie, despite the cliches. I think Firth’s and Stone’s characters needed to end up together since they’re both in the profession of fooling people into believing what they’re seeing is real. The difference is where people know a magic show is smoke and mirrors, some unfortunate people buy fully into long island mediums’ tricks. Firth, however, is already very cynical, while Stone seems wide-eyed and innocent. Her motive is she was poor and her talent was in being a medium.

I think the aunt’s car crash served to move the plot forward. It’s when Firth is praying for her, when previously he didn’t even believe in God, when he (and the audience) realize he’s gone too far. His character arc goes from 180 degrees to 360, and is more believable than if it had ended there.

Nick: The writing of these scenes though are very simple as well. So the somewhat-above-80-year-old aunt gets into a car crash that is so severe that it has Stanley praying. Next scene she is walking perfectly fine with a cane in hand. Scene after that you ask? She is walking around with no cane perfectly fine. I don’t think there is a large lapse of time in between any moments in the film for that to make any sense. It’s perfectly understandable for Stone and Firth to end up together, but the fact that the other suitor was such a sad, dopey character made it hard for me to believe the film could have ended anywhere else but with the two main characters falling in love.  

The movie never bothered me but it didn’t live up to Woody Allen’s recent films. So I guess I was expecting to be moved a little bit. The film was charming, but not memorable. The secondary characters were there, but really weren’t. They don’t make impressions. They might have one line or two, but they don’t say much. Blue Jasmine was the opposite where even the smallest of characters has somewhat of an impact on the trajectory of the story.