| I saw this over the holiday. I thought Diane Weist was great but Tracy
Ullman really bored me. Everyone else was good and I laughed a lot. I
loved all the "don't speak" stuff.
Jennifer Tilly, as annoying as she always is, was perfect for the role.
Woody Allen rarely disappoints me with his casting choices but I always
miss him when he's not in his films. Also...no Mia Farrow.
MJ
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| I was rather disappointed in this movie. Woody's writing didn't seem
up to his usual standards. Too much was predictable. Too often he
went for the obvious little laugh, which made scenes seem staged.
Dianne Wiest was terrific, but the rest of the cast was ordinary.
Chazz Palmentieri played the exact same person from "A Bronx Tale",
not exactly a stretch. John Cusack has done much better.
5.5 out of 10, mostly for the quality of the period piece
NAZZ
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I simply loved this movie! It's definitely a light comedy and not something
I'd nominate for the best-of-the-year category, but what fun it was! I
enjoyed it immensely.
Somehow the film found my fun nerve and tapped into it. I didn't even mind
the mafia murdering which would normally make me annoyed and bored in a
movie, it was all under the "relax, it's a comedy" spell.
I liked everyone in the film. Tracy Ullman did an amazing job, throughout
the film I didn't see Tracy at all but her character instead. She's a master
of getting into character, yet this was even better than anything I'd seen
her do in her TV show. The same holds true for the rest of the crew. The
casting of all the characters was perfect.
I liked the central themes of "liking the artist vs the man" and "do you save
the art or the person if you're an artist" that ran throughout the movie. I
liked the lines which poked fun at the art community intelligentsia, lines
such as "he's such a genius that even other geniuses can't understand his
plays" and most of all, "he's genius enough to create his OWN moral
universe," which naturally led to his wife explaining that the affair began
when their genius friend "unzipped his fly to best illustrate his thoughts on
Greek mythology." :-)
The period 1920's aspects of the film were high quality and just a lot of fun
all the way around. The manner of 'acting' back then is always a blast to
revisit. The quality of the period piece was very high throughout, except
for one nit I'm surprised that escaped Woody... when you see them actually
performing the play in Boston, their acting on stage was the style of acting
on today's stage, NOT the manner of acting of the 1920's stage. Both of us
caught this and were surprised by it. But otherwise the film was a real
treat from start to end.
Of course "Don't speak...no...DON'T speak" has been used in the household
several times already... :-)
-Erik
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