A wonderful, funny and moving character study

Rating: 9/10 (6 July 2010)

Sweet, gentle, sad, with amazing performances by Sean Penn and Samantha Morton.
Interestingly, this got mixed reviews on release for being 'small' in scope, but to me that's its great strength. As screwed up as the Sean Penn character is, we still get pulled into him, and it makes for a lovely portrait of a sad, lost, brilliant jazz guitarist. Penn and Allen conspire to create one of the most simultaneously infuriating and oddly ingratiating characters of recent memory
No big conclusions or statements, just a subtle, brilliantly acted comic and tragic study of humanity. That's enough make this the strongest Woody Allen film for a number of years.