Shockingly poor

Rating: 4/10 (28 April 2007)

About 15 minutes in, my wife and I turned to each other and agreed that this was rubbish. In fact, if it hadn't been a Woody Allen film, we might've stopped watching. The acting is rotten, but given that the script is appallingly bad, they didn't stand a chance. (Brian Cox was good, and Johansson had her moments, but that's about it.) The lines are so cliché-laden, we thought that maybe it was all supposed to be a little tongue-in-cheek, but unfortunately it turns out it was all "serious".
I was mightily relieved when the film finally achieved some dramatic tension. The plot at this point wasn't original, but it was quite well done, and I almost decided that the film might be worth 5/10 after all. But the denouement is utterly ridiculous - Allen has resorted to remaking one of his own films! Sad. If this is the future level of Allen's film-making, I hope he retires.