There are things you do hate, Lord. Perfume-smellin’ things, lacy things, things with curly hair.
A genuine concept, Woody Allen’s film spends 100 minutes gasping for air like a dying fish, though not as entertainingly. The characters, when not spouting stomach-churning clichés (“You can’t go through life rubbing lamps and wishing”), state and restate the obvious; in fact, they state everything. Wallace Shawn is impish and annoying, Will Ferrell’s character was obviously written by Allen for himself, and Ferrell channels the writer-director poorly. Every other actor is deplorable save for Radha Mitchell as the titular woman and Chiwetel Ejiofor as a piano player named Ellis Moonsong. Both radiate as their respective characters; if Allen had inverted the story, structuring the plot around their scenes, the film would have been much more enjoyable.
In the words of Moonsong, “Why is it that things that start off so promisingly always have a way of ending up in the dump?” Truer words have never been spoken.
by Adam Balz | Source: 20th Century Fox DVD
27 Sep 2006 10:50 PM | Submit Comment