Brilliant stuff.....total, undiluted, good movie experience this was. It's what Woody Allen does best, how he manages to weave in the layers and complexities of human relationships, bringing out with gut honesty basic wants, desires, needs, and at other times the frailty and hypocrisy of those as well.
As story line, Woody Allen as Isaac, is a forty plus writer in the making, involved with a seventeen year old student, who is so in love with him. While he really enjoys her, he's struggling with what she wants, what he wants, what's good for her....and there's no easy fit. He seems to spend more time trying to break them up than anything, while yet wanting her, but uncomfortable with her age. Complex.
And then you have Yale, his best friend who is into an extra marital affair, though with a happy marriage. Of course, makes you wonder what a good marriage is. And to complicate things further, Allen gets attracted to the same woman, an intellectual types with who he can spend hours talking. So it's dealing with all of those layered complexities, including the rigid code of not getting involved with your best friends loves.
The fun element is of course there......while there's the seriousness and empathy it evokes, the witty single liners are delivered with such casual punch that they hit straight home. It's hard to define. Somethings are way subtle and some so in your face.
In fact I recently read somewhere that people respond aloud to movies in a theater, when surrounded by others, but not alone. Not true.... I found myself laughing aloud ever so often, sitting and watching on my laptop all by myself. And it comes from deep down, because in that quiet space, you know you're also laughing at yourself.
And then you have Yale, his best friend who is into an extra marital affair, though with a happy marriage. Of course, makes you wonder what a good marriage is. And to complicate things further, Allen gets attracted to the same woman, an intellectual types with who he can spend hours talking. So it's dealing with all of those layered complexities, including the rigid code of not getting involved with your best friends loves.
The fun element is of course there......while there's the seriousness and empathy it evokes, the witty single liners are delivered with such casual punch that they hit straight home. It's hard to define. Somethings are way subtle and some so in your face.
In fact I recently read somewhere that people respond aloud to movies in a theater, when surrounded by others, but not alone. Not true.... I found myself laughing aloud ever so often, sitting and watching on my laptop all by myself. And it comes from deep down, because in that quiet space, you know you're also laughing at yourself.
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