Firth has an insouciance light as a soufflé and a range of emotion from disillusioned arrogance to romantic surrender. Firth’s picture, and he holds on like a puppy with a new bone. Linklater sings “It All Depends on You” so out of tune in a Roaring Twenties version of a Speedo that is irresistible.īut it’s Mr. Atkins is delicious as the wise, pragmatic aunt, and Mr.
Stone far surpasses her gumdrop-eyed sweetness as Spider-Man’s girlfriend, Marcia Gay Harden has center stage moments of her own as Sophie’s mother, Ms.
The impact of so much elegance and sophistication is profound. Tropez in the background, it makes you realize what George Bernard Shaw meant when he said, “The French don’t deserve their country.” It doesn’t matter if the script is slight and the story thin as a lemon wedge. Filmed with the opulence of birthday cake castles, smart period cars and blue Mediterranean waves lapping the beaches of Nice, Cap d’Antibes and St.
MAGIC BEAN WOODY MOVIE
To a bevy of lush, romantic tunes by Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart, performed by Bix Beiderbecke, Ruth Etting and others, illuminated by formal balls replete with champagne, luscious costumes, larky flappers, tailored white suits and strings of pearls, the movie is so magnificent to look at that I’m convinced Woody should have directed The Great Gatsby instead of Baz Luhrmann. This is a Woody Allen movie, so complications ensue. Instead of exposing her, Sophie exposes him. Now, posing as a certain Stanley Taplinger who made his money in Brazilian coffee beans, the most cynical debunker of spiritual hokum in the world plans to finish her off in record time, but finds himself slowly succumbing to the charismatic American medium himself-beautiful, luminous and knowledgeable about secrets in his own life to which nobody has access but God. The family can’t make a single business decision without consulting her first. He arrives, ready for bear, but what a shock-the son (Hamish Linklater) is already a dupe so besotted with Sophie that he plays show tunes on a ukulele and fits her finger with a knockout engagement ring. When he hears about an American clairvoyant named Sophie Baker (Emma Stone) who has invaded the chateau of the Catledge family from Pittsburgh, employed to conduct séances for the rich and gullible widow (Jacki Weaver) that will bring her closer to the spirit of her late industrialist husband, Stanley cuts short his world tour as Wei Ling Soo and heads for the Mediterranean to save the Catledges from the clutches of this venomous psychic, stopping for a brief vacation with his favorite Aunt Vanessa (a rapturous Eileen Atkins) in Provence. Supremely arrogant, snobbish and superior, Stanley specializes in debunking myths of the occult and exposing all the fakes who practice it, from card sharks to the pope. Firth, who creates some magic of his own in one of the most devastatingly handsome appearances of his career. He is in fact a London fraud named Stanley Crawford, played to the hilt by Mr.
It opens with a quick visit to a theatrical performance by an acerbic, irritable and impossibly demanding Chinese illusionist in elaborate Oriental wigs, makeup and scarlet silks, with the stage name Wei Ling Soo. Set in the gorgeous days of the Cote d’Azur in 1928, Woody’s 44 th film is also one of his best. Starring: Emma Stone, Colin Firth and Marcia Gay Harden
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