A cute throwaway

Rating: 7/10 (31 May 2011)

It is good to a see a comedy not designed for cognitively impaired twenty-year olds. You don't have to be drunk or stoned to enjoy this film. It has a cute plot gimmick, one that would be appreciated by The Onion fans (I am one) Wilson plays the Woody Allen character very well, all the other performances are fine, except Carla Bruni, who looks like she has stumbled into the movie by mistake. Once in the scene, she seems to be searching for a quick escape route.
The problem with this film is that those of us who followed the Allen brand since it's inception know that better films were made with similar plot lines: a fantasy character (or more) intervene in a character's life and change it.(Play It Again Sam, The Purple Rose of Cairo) However, in this movie there are numerous characters of the 1920s, all cartoons with with little joke lines. Gertrude Stein is a butch, curt lady and Hemingway pontificates, each is on screen for a couple of minutes, then goodbye. None of these "characters" actually interact in any meaningful way with Wilson, the protagonist. Then it is all wrapped up in a facile platitude and a happy ending.
It could have been so much better.