The best Woody has done in a long while

Rating: 8/10 (31 July 2011)

Truth be told, after following his career diligently through to the end of the 80s - 1990 is in fact the end of the 80s and Alice was the last I've seen of Woody's work without missing a single one. There were still some very good movies in the 90s but in recent years he seemed to be making a film a year because that's what he does. The last two I've seen though technically flawless lost the special soul and personality that was his trademark. Whatever Works of two years ago was nice and had a great Allen feel to it (it was an old script after all) but the plot was forced at many moments and never more so than at the end which gave the whole experience a bad after taste.
Well I've heard this one was different, and after great deliberation decided to give Woody another shot. I wasn't disappointed, it is as the title said the best I've seen of him for a very long while. In fact the only flaw I did find in the movie was Owen Wilson whom I do like in many of his roles but I must say -despite looking almost like Woody without the glasses it felt like he was busy doing a Woody imitation and not playing the struggling writer he should have been. Every one else was perfect. The plot flowed seamlessly the cinematography was amazing and all the other actors were super. Even Carla Bruni played her tiny role perfectly (which wasn't as small as I thought it would be) thing is her real role is another Woody trick to make sure we always remember this is a movie. Just like Rembrandt made sure we could see his brush strokes, Woody makes sure we'd never forget none of it is real - it's all his movie and his vision. Altogether it's a real nice clever movie to watch, not a masterpiece but not a waste of time or a disappointment by any stretch.