Allen's Return to Relevance?

Rating: 5/10 (5 April 2006)

This film begins in refreshing subtlety, but the violence at the end seems a real miscue. It really prevents Woody Allen's return to relevance and becomes instead an awkward stab at semi-grace. Tennis, that subtle sport, is the back drop here. The opening sequence with a tennis ball jutting into the air above a net signals a film about manners, both good and bad, on both sides of the court. Actually, the characters are mostly well-to-do Irish and British people. The lone American is so crudely foreign that she becomes the object of desire for more than one seeker. But, the sensuality never seems forced or overdone, perhaps because of the youthful preponderance. Another viewer drew a comparison to Allen's earlier film about the elimination of an affair Crimes and Misdemeanors. Yet those characters were older and drenched in off-putting angst, whereas these characters are so young, athletic, and noncommittal. In Crimes and Misdemeanors, you walk away believing that Martin Landaeu not only killed someone he loved but also tried to hire a hit-man in the process. However, you leave the theater here saying that pretty boy Meyers did what with his father-in-law's shotgun? Minus the shotgun and the double homicide, of course, this film could have really stood as a humble film standing in the face of contemporary violence, a kind of angel for character-driven pieces. So, the murder is truly a mistake because the film doesn't set us up for it. The tension builds and builds and then breaks apart, never to be seen again. Allen ends with Meyers gazing away from his circle of loved ones as the opera swoons his internal despair. The viewer doesn't empathize with Meyers because we feel the same way. What just happened here?