A story of an artist who dreams of the moon, and fears of riding it !

Rating: 7/10 (25 May 2010)

It seems like ages since the last time I watched a decent movie by (Woody Allen). Let's see; from Annie Hall (1977) to Everyone Says I Love You (1996) things were good. Then Deconstructing Harry (1997), Small Time Crooks (2000), The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001), Hollywood Ending (2002), and Melinda and Melinda (2004) ALL had problems, sometimes more than their good points. In the middle of both phases is where Sweet and Lowdown exists. Now this is a good movie on all the levels.
Why Emmet Ray couldn't be Django Reinhardt? It's simple. He isn't that bold when it comes to express his feelings. So that's why he didn't tell the girl he loved, who loved him as well, that he loves her, and lost her at the end. I think there is a reason why Allen did a movie about that man, else paying a tribute to jazz guitarist he loves. Allen is the complete opposite of Emmet Ray. Dear Woody just can't get enough of showing himself to the audience through the characters of his movies during the last 35 years, some of them played by him. Or maybe, after all of these years, Woody just sees that he didn't express enough, feeling a bound with Ray as if the last is a symbol for the suppression which can kill a talented artist. We can read this movie as a conscience of importunate fear Allen has.
Anyway, I loved it. It was fantastic how Allen, out of some unfinished or uncertain stories, made his own version of Emmet Ray's bio. Btw, history itself suffers from having true and false stories! However, I felt something was missing with the background of the character. His history was a bit vague. I knew well that he was poor to the extent that made him afraid of being poor again, so he worked a lot, threw money away for looking rich, having this strange love to steal (he, to some extent, just wants to own). But on the other hand, I didn't understand what the secret of his fear to express was?, was it some kind of compulsory obsession?, was it something in his childhood?, was he that shy of his early poor life?, another unanswered question: He drank much to forget what? His fear, or his inner belief that he wouldn't be great due to this very fear?
There are some nice moments. The ones with his wife were so serene, and hilariously comic. Samantha Morton is out of this world, being a tender creature sent from better place to do this role. In that place that she came from, she was gifted with the magical diamond of acting, which made her deliver so realistic and believable performance. Sean Penn proves that he's a master of characters. He did it nearly flawlessly. However, he was lowdown and no sweet! And finally, there is nothing, and I mean nothing, that can be more joyful more than witnessing how the old jazz tracks, that Woody adores, fit perfectly in the movie he directs. Ahhh, I felt deep relief about that apart!
(Sweet and Lowdown) is romantic, funny, and sad. And, most importantly, it is where all the elements that make a usual Woody Allen's movie shared to make, at last, a fine Woody Allen's movie. The moon that Ray dreamed of and feared of, Allen captured and rode.