Decent Woody Allen Film, But Not One of My Favorites

Rating: 7/10 (29 June 2010)

Woody Allen's fictionalized "documentary" about a famous jazz guitarist's rise and fall in Depression-era America.
This plays out like one of those biopics about famous musicians that all blend into one another because of their sameness ("Ray," "Walk the Line"), the difference here being that Sean Penn's Emmet Ray is a fictional creation, and Allen is lampooning the very conventions that make those other movies so boring.
Penn displays a gift for comedy he hadn't exercised since "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," while Samantha Morton made her first major appearance in front of movie audiences as his mute, long-suffering and ever-dependable wife.
This isn't one of my favorite Allen comedies, but it's a pretty good movie.
Grade: B