Trenchant film satire coupled with wonderfully silly slapstick...

Rating: 7/10 (29 April 2009)

Woody Allen as a klutzy Russian attempting to avoid being drafted during the Napoleonic War. Even with all the visual gags and slapstick comedy routines, "Love and Death" remains one of writer-director-star Allen's smartest movies, equally a satire of Ingmar Bergman's films, a send-up of Russian novels and epic war pictures. It has some dizzying set-pieces and laugh out-loud sequences (such as the bit at the opera, with Woody turning would-be Casanova). It's extremely clever, brimming over with all kinds of crazy ideas (some of which are brilliant, and some I felt might have stood some prudent trimming). Woody and Diane Keaton are delightfully in-sync throughout, and the film's design and cinematography are marvelously spot-on. *** from ****