Smokin'!

Rating: 6/10 (2 March 2009)

You can't ignore him, this Woody Allen bloke. Gone is the succession of one liners. Long gone. Gone is Allen himself in his annual outing. Gone is an addiction to New York. So what do we have left?
Well, we have a European tour which now reaches Catalonia, and quite pleasant it is too. Pleasant. I think I found Match Point "pleasant", but I may have been in the minority there. I think we may have to get used to this. The older ones, you know,  Distant memories, but enough to grant Woody leeway. I think we now have very much a Ronnie Corbett arm-chair joke  cosy, familiar, and professionally executed. But forgettable.
So just in case that turns out to be the memory let's mention some interesting contribution from Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall; a new side to Javier Bardem; and an outstanding performance from Penelope Cruz who I suspect has set the anti-smoking lobby back thirty years and in fact may even have caused Operation Trident a headache or two. Excellent stuff
Ron
(Viewed 17Feb09)