Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight is a romantic comedy set in the French Riviera of the 1920s, and it wants to be a meditation on faith, science, and the limits of rational thought. That ambition is not enough to carry it. The film, starring Colin Firth as Stanley Crawford, a master magician hired to expose a psychic named Sophie Baker (Emma Stone), is a competent but hollow exercise in Allen’s familiar routines. It is a pleasant enough trip to the past, but it never becomes more than that.
Trailer, via Warner Bros. UK & Ireland.
Stanley and Sophie
Firth plays Stanley Crawford, a British magician whose act goes by the name Wei Ling Soo. He is a man of reason, a skeptic, and he is convinced that every trick has a method behind it. When an old friend, Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney), asks him to investigate Sophie Baker, a young woman claiming to be a clairvoyant, Stanley agrees. What follows is a series of encounters that should convince Stanley of Sophie’s fraudulence, but instead convince him of something else entirely.
Stone plays Sophie as a woman of mystery and charm, a performer who can enter a trance and reveal intimate details about strangers. She is not a fraud, at least not in the way Stanley expects. When she visits his Aunt Vanessa (Eileen Atkins) in Provence and touches her pearls, she speaks of a great love affair that belongs to the aunt’s past. Stanley watches a séance in which a candle floats from a table, and Howard grabs it to look for the trick. There is none.
The film builds its case slowly, through a series of small wonders that accumulate into something close to a revelation. Stanley sees the candle rise, hears Sophie speak of his aunt’s lost romance, and begins to doubt his own skepticism. The movie wants him to change, and it wants the audience to feel the weight of that change.
The Riviera Setting
The film is set in the French Riviera, and Allen fills the screen with the gilded excess of the period. There are parties, gardens, and grand houses where the wealthy gather to be entertained. The costumes are lavish, the lighting is soft, and the whole production feels like a period piece designed to be beautiful. It is, in many ways, the most successful element of the film.
The performances support this world. Firth is precise and controlled as Stanley, a man whose certainties are being shaken. Stone is luminous as Sophie, a woman who moves through the world with a grace that seems almost otherworldly. Their chemistry is genuine, and the scenes between them, especially the ones at the observatory where they look at the stars, carry real feeling.
Where It Falls Short
The problem is the writing. Allen’s script is formulaic, and it repeats itself. The pattern is simple: Stanley sees a wonder, he dismisses it, he is proven wrong, and he feels a little less sure of himself. Repeat that loop three or four times, and the film loses its momentum. The mystery of Sophie should be tense, but it becomes predictable. We know how it will end, and we know what Stanley will learn, and that knowledge flattens the experience.
The supporting cast is full of talented actors doing competent work. Marcia Gay Harden plays Mrs. Baker, the mother of Sophie, with a warmth that grounds the family. Jacki Weaver appears briefly as Grace, and Erica Leerhsen and Antonia Clarke appear as Sophie’s assistants. None of them get enough to do. The film is a showcase for Firth and Stone, and everyone else is left to fill in the background.
The Final Verdict
Magic in the Moonlight is a film that understands its own beauty but does not understand its own stakes. The performances are strong, particularly from Firth and Stone, but the story beneath them is thin. It is a pleasant trip to the past, a comfortable evening in the cinema, but it is not a memorable one.
The film received a mixed reception, and that judgment holds up. Critics praised the performances of Firth and Stone, but found the writing formulaic. That is a fair assessment. The performances are the reason to watch, and the writing is the reason to forget.
- The performances of Firth and Stone are strong and committed.
- The setting is sumptuous and atmospheric.
- The mystery is predictable and thin.
- The conclusion is sincere but unsatisfying.
Allen is clearly fond of his characters, and that affection shows in the care he takes with the visual details. But fondness is not enough to carry a story. Magic in the Moonlight is a film that respects its audience’s intelligence while offering them nothing new to think about. It is a competent piece of work, but it is not a great one.
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