If you "don't get" Woody Allen, this movie won't help.

Rating: 2/10 (30 June 2009)

There were three things that bothered me about this movie. 1) Woody Allen, whose controversial relationships are well-documented, has created a movie promoting a judgment free world where people should do as they please with their relationships. Nothing wrong with that, but why does he need to put down conventional lives and relationships in order to do so? He mocks conventional life styles as mundane and torturous. Two male characters are negatively portrayed because of their huge sin: being boring (gasp!). You would think that a man whose movies are found to be boring by 95% of the population would be sensitive towards that label.
2) The writing when it comes to the characters. They all talk the same, use the same vocabulary, and posses the same wit. Maybe for New York intellectuals who only hang around each other that might be the case, but for the rest of the world, that's not the case and it makes for a rather unrealistic movie. Take the character of Juan Antonio as an example. When he introduces himself, he struggles with his English and fumbles for the right words, then two sentences later, he uses the word "subterfuge". What foreigner do you know who struggles with the English language and who also use that word? What native English speakers do you known who uses that word? Again, this is because all the characters are written to speak the same.
3) The story. At the end of the movie, all of the characters are exactly at the same place they were at the beginning of the movie. You could argue that Vicki's character views her life differently, but yet she's still following the same actions she did at the beginning. In essence, you just wasted your time watching this movie, for all of the weaving the story tries to do, in the end, you are back to where you started.
The cinematography was nice, but outside of that, not a good movie.