Falling in love with someone unexpectedly can already be quite a challenge, and it only becomes more excruciatingly difficult when the person who grows into the object of your affections proves to have manufactured the entire situation as part of some scheme to bamboozle and bewilder. This is the core narrative foundation of Magic in the Moonlight, a film in which Woody Allen, currently in his late-stage career that has motivated a critical re-evaluation of his recent work, tells the story of a cynical stage magician who is coerced to travel to the French Riviera, where he is to quietly observe the interactions between the wealthy residents of the region and an American woman who claims to be a psychic, and who spends her days mingling with Europe’s wealthiest and most influential individuals under the guise of being some brilliant medium, patiently waiting for someone to discredit her, which our protagonist is more than intent on doing – until he falls madly in love with her. A film very much forged in the image of the many delightfully irreverent, Europe-based comedies that Allen made over the past two decades, Magic in the Moonlight is a charming film, but not one that is by any means definitive of this era, nor particularly effective as far as its thematic content goes, being solid and amusing more than outrageously funny and deeply meaningful. It is difficult not to be at least somewhat charmed by the film, since its primary purpose is to entertaining more than it is to enlighten, but this doesn’t stop it from featuring a few qualities that needed immense improvement, starting right at its foundation and working upwards until we get to the final project, which is slightly too glossy and overly-sentimental ever even to come close to approaching some of the work Allen was doing at his peak.

Magic in the Moonlight often comes across as the product of someone combining every film Allen has made in the past two decades and creating an almost parodic, archetypal product that is meant to lampoon the kind of gentle, toothless period comedy that he has gravitated towards in recent years. This is present both visually and narratively, with the thematic content of this film being very much based around some of the usual ideas that he often explores. It begins with a slight emergence of the odd couple scenario, where the differences that divide two characters initially cause friction between them as they engage in a quiet game of cat-and-mouse to determine whether they can trust the other, which is then followed by a steep descent into the process of genuinely falling in love, coinciding with the “unmasking” of the identities behind which they were hiding, and then rounding it out with the usual tension-and-resolution that pulls them apart and then promptly brings them back together. For a director with as long and storied a career as Allen, it’s slightly concerning that one of his films can be so easily broken down into clear components, and where these few words actually cover a substantial part of the premise, with everything that isn’t included merely being supplementary. Allen certainly has a body of work that warrants some degree of recognition – some elements occur throughout his career, and patterns that emerge consistently over the years. These directorial trademarks are understandable and actually quite charming, as they bind his sprawling career together, but the concern is when it becomes so overly dependent on the themes that he usually explores – unexpected romances, mistaken identity, the relationship between the class systems – that we begin to feel those nagging feels of frustration in not being nearly as invested in one of his films as we may have been in the past, regardless of the small but meaningful merits that linger throughout the film.

In what we can imagine was a case of casting actors that both fascinated him as performers, and who were at the very peak of their popularity, Allen populates Magic in the Moonlight with a few very recognisable names, which we can assume is an effort to work with people he admired and wanted to immerse in his own unique world. Colin Firth had established himself as one of the reliable elder statesmen of British cinema, and had gradually started to receive more recognition as the years progressed – but oddly enough, not too many comedies made their way in his direction, so we can imagine this role would have been very appealing to someone who had built a career out of playing these slightly stuffy, straight-laced men who were almost always the patsy to more eccentric characters. In this case, that role is occupied by Emma Stone, who was herself in the process of slowly being taken more seriously as an actor and was clearly very much aligned with Allen’s artistic vision, as the entirety of Magic in the Moonlight could be considered an opportunity to give her the chance to play one of his great female protagonists. Unfortunately, as much as he was aiming to give her a moment akin to Diane Keaton in Annie Hall, Mia Farrow in Alice or Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine, the role was far too flimsy and slight to ever amount to anything, despite Stone consistently doing her best to elevate the limited material. The supporting cast is filled with recognisable faces – Marcia Gay Harden and Jacki Weaver are always welcome presences, and Simon McBurney has the rare, substantial supporting part where he actually furthers the plot rather than just being a minor player in the story. A good cast can elevate paltry material, but only to a certain extent, and Magic in the Moonlight doesn’t necessarily show the best of any of these actors, which is not an ideal outcome for something that genuinely did have a lot of potential. 

While it does have a few elements that warrant praise and make it at least partially entertaining as it stands, Magic in the Moonlight is a film we’ve all seen before in terms of its themes and structure, and there’s very little that Allen does here that he hasn’t perfected in the past, leading to an experience that is more dull than it is compelling, a major point of concern. This begins with the plot – the film is so incredibly predictable, and while there are a couple of small twists and turns that do keep it interesting from time to time, the overall experience is one in which we can anticipate every narrative beat, making it decidedly less exciting. Yet, there’s an argument to be made that Allen isn’t interested in surprising the audience, but rather immersing us in a particular period of the past, allowing us to be enveloped in the delightfully artificial charm of the 1920s, transporting us to a different era. This isn’t entirely unsuccessful, since the film is inarguably very well-made, having a lovely proficiency in terms of technical and creative skill that does catch our attention, but doesn’t necessarily manage to hold it for very long. The stunning production design (the film being shot on location around the French coast), the gorgeous costumes and the intricate details all work together to create a very charming film that is more aesthetically pleasing than it is narratively rich, which will mean that it appeals to different factions of the audience. Tonally, the film takes on the predictably twee, quirky attitude that have been at the foundation of most of Allen’s recent work (and which becomes more or less effective depending on whether it is used well), which does feel like he has lost the sharp, scathing tone he had in his earlier years, but which still proves to at least be gentle and comforting, which is ultimately the core purpose of this film.

Magic in the Moonlight is proof that having a career that lasts over half a century can occasionally result in a few misfires, even if it isn’t a bad film, but rather one that struggles to reach the immense heights of Allen’s other work. It is wholeheartedly understandable that not everything he made would be seen as some staggering achievement, and that some works will be less impactful than others. This doesn’t change the fact that Magic in the Moonlight is a delightfully irreverent romp through the past, handcrafted by a director who may not be operating at full capacity with this film, but it nonetheless still committed to producing something charming and entertaining, which is its fundamental purpose and the entire reason Allen chose to tell this story, being aware that he was not operating at the same level of subversion or artistic ambition as he did earlier in his career. A charming comedy with a lot of heart, but which falls short when it comes to actually realizing the majority of its ideas and turning them into something engaging and captivating beyond the somewhat limited humour that is more amusing than it is outrageously funny, Magic in the Moonlight is a solid but unremarkable film that is far from the worst film that Allen would go on to make, but still serves as a mere shadow of his previous mastery of his craft, which still lingers as a spectre in this film, albeit in only the smallest and most insignificant of traces.