SEPTEMBER is living proof that even a genius can screw up. I'm a real fan of Woody Allen's, and I even thought that "Interiors", which the critics carved up, wasn't so bad. But 'September' is a real dog, a genuine bow-wow. I came across it in the video store (I forget which category I found it under, but it should have been 'Horror'); I hadn't heard of it but was attracted by the cast - Mia Farrow, Sam Waterston, Denholm Elliot and Jack Warden among others.
We are dumped abruptly into a summer house in Vermont where four neurotic, repressed, and emotionally constipated people are discussing with each other how miserable they are. This interminable whining is interrupted by the arrival of the parents of Lane (Mia Farrow). This provides a change of character - instead of neurotic we get wimpy (the father) and obnoxiously self-centered (the mother). The rest of the movie deals with the emotional entanglements of these six boring folks, with more whining and some inane philosophizing thrown in. The dialogue is leaden enough to sink the Lusitania, the pacing is slower than grain delivery in the former USSR, and action is non-existent (nothing HAPPENS). The movie ends as abruptly as it began, leaving the viewer (assuming he got that far), with two thoughts - 1) thank God, and, 2) what the Hell was the point?
Forget it. See "Love and Death" or "Sleeper" again.
We are dumped abruptly into a summer house in Vermont where four neurotic, repressed, and emotionally constipated people are discussing with each other how miserable they are. This interminable whining is interrupted by the arrival of the parents of Lane (Mia Farrow). This provides a change of character - instead of neurotic we get wimpy (the father) and obnoxiously self-centered (the mother). The rest of the movie deals with the emotional entanglements of these six boring folks, with more whining and some inane philosophizing thrown in. The dialogue is leaden enough to sink the Lusitania, the pacing is slower than grain delivery in the former USSR, and action is non-existent (nothing HAPPENS). The movie ends as abruptly as it began, leaving the viewer (assuming he got that far), with two thoughts - 1) thank God, and, 2) what the Hell was the point?
Forget it. See "Love and Death" or "Sleeper" again.