A married couple, Andrew and Adrian, invite a group of friends over to their house in the country for a few days. The guests consist of two couples: Adrian's cousin Leopold, a stuffy academic, and his fiancé Ariel and Andrew's friend Maxwell, a doctor and serial womaniser, and his nurse Dulcy. Andrew and Ariel have a history - Andrew thinks of Ariel as The One That Got Away - and meeting her again rekindles those emotions. However, Maxwell is soon smitten by Ariel too.
Another Ingmar Bergman-inspired Woody Allen movie, though lighter than Allen's usual such offerings. This lightness is largely a good thing in that when Allen goes Full Bergman the result is usually very slow and depressing. Here we have glimpses of the funny Woody Allen mixed with a drama that encompasses fidelity, existence, marriage and metaphysics.
This mix is both a plus and a minus. The plus is that, as mentioned before, this isn't a full-on Bergmanesque drama. The negative is that the movie is neither fish nor fowl: half-drama and half-comedy and doesn't excel at being either. The drama ends without much profundity. The comedy is used sparingly, as if Allen did not want to detract from the (ultimately, half-baked) drama. So many opportunities for a good one-liner or a good skit that went a-begging as Allen pulled his punches. This could have been a great comedy if Allen had abandoned the drama part.
This all said, this is a reasonably entertaining movie. The humour, when it is used, is great - some wonderful one-liners. The characters are engaging and the plot is interesting, with love triangles/rectangles/hexagon that make for intriguing, who-will-end-with-whom mysteries. Good performances all round.
Not brilliant, but moves at a good pace and is never dull.
Another Ingmar Bergman-inspired Woody Allen movie, though lighter than Allen's usual such offerings. This lightness is largely a good thing in that when Allen goes Full Bergman the result is usually very slow and depressing. Here we have glimpses of the funny Woody Allen mixed with a drama that encompasses fidelity, existence, marriage and metaphysics.
This mix is both a plus and a minus. The plus is that, as mentioned before, this isn't a full-on Bergmanesque drama. The negative is that the movie is neither fish nor fowl: half-drama and half-comedy and doesn't excel at being either. The drama ends without much profundity. The comedy is used sparingly, as if Allen did not want to detract from the (ultimately, half-baked) drama. So many opportunities for a good one-liner or a good skit that went a-begging as Allen pulled his punches. This could have been a great comedy if Allen had abandoned the drama part.
This all said, this is a reasonably entertaining movie. The humour, when it is used, is great - some wonderful one-liners. The characters are engaging and the plot is interesting, with love triangles/rectangles/hexagon that make for intriguing, who-will-end-with-whom mysteries. Good performances all round.
Not brilliant, but moves at a good pace and is never dull.