Lightweight Sweet and Lowdown Boasts a Great Sean Penn Performance

Rating: Null/10 (14 January 2000)

Some folks prefer fat Elvis over skinny Elvis or Rat Pack Sinatra over 40's Sinatra. Same can be said of Woody Allen. Myself, I prefer the earlier Woodman (Bananas, Take the Money and Run, Love and Death, Annie Hall) as opposed to the post Mia Farrow Allen. He was a hell of a lot funnier back then and more entertaining. While "Sweet and Lowdown" does not fit in the later angry Allen category (it resembles more of his earlier period), it is definitely not primo Woody. For me the last great Woody Allen picture was 1977's brilliant and hilarious "Annie Hall", no doubt his best work ever.
"Sweet and Lowdown" boasts a great performance from Sean Penn, looks great and has a great jazz score, but the film for the most part is pretty lightweight and hammers the continuous concept of "genius musician cannot be intimate with another" throughout the entire picture. Underneath it is really not much substance. This mock documentary centers on the fictitious 1930's obscure jazz guitarist Emmet Ray (Sean Penn) who lives somewhat in the shadow of the real life jazz player, Django Reinhardt, Ray's idol. Although Ray is a brilliant guitar player, he just doesn't have his act together. He drinks too much, gambles, is irresponsible, lives beyond his means and has major commitment and intimacy problems (hell, sounds a lot like myself and every other male on the planet). He eventually meets a mute, Hattie (Samantha Morton) that he falls for and eventually leaves for a socialite writer (Uma Thurman) and then begins his trip to self-destruction and obscurity.
Sean Penn, one of the top ten great actors working today, gives a wonderful and winning comedic and moving performance as Emmet, whose eccentricities and ego put him over the edge and hinder his musical career and personal life. Penn as always immerses himself deep within the character to create a role that a lesser actor would have made into a caricature. Now this is the actor who should have played the title character in "The Talented Mr. Ripley", what a different and much better picture that would have been. Samantha Morton as Hattie is also wonderful in a supporting role. Without any dialogue she conveys so much through her body language and facial expressions. It is a performance worthy of an Oscar nomination, the kind that the Academy loves. Uma Thurman, who is a hit or miss with me, seems out of place in this picture. First off, I don't think it is that good of a performance and second, I found her, not the character, annoying.
"Sweet and Lowdown" is being characterized as a comedy, and while there are some funny lines, I did not find myself laughing that much (at least I laughed more than once as compared to the unfunny "Being John Malkovich"). I expected much more wit from Woody Allen and much more period. I guess you could call this Wood-lite. The picture just does not have much substance to it nor does it really go anywhere. If it were not for Sean Penn's bravura performance, there would not be really anything here. After all these years and personal turmoil, maybe the Woodman has finally run out of steam, I hope not. Not Recommended. × × 1/2 out of 5