funny but,....

Rating: 6/10 (22 March 2006)

I think this film marks the beginning of Woody Allen's attempt to be seen as an intellectual film maker. Up until this movie, his movies were often pretty silly--even dopey at times. And he was great at being dopey--producing some movies that were jam-packed with laughs. However, in this film we see SOME of his previous silliness but it is now combined with references to Russian literature that only Russians, intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals would understand. For the first time, he shows that he is beginning to lose his audience--his "regular" fans. References to Uncle Vanya, Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy will no doubt go right over the heads of fans who were used to a different brand of humor. While the film is NOT devoid of laughs, they are fewer and the overall message from Allen seems to be "wow--I'm funny AND an intellectual". I guess I'm not an intellectual, then.