Magic in the Moonlight

Ratings: 9.2/10

Film Class: C

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Director Woody Allen has finally stolen my heart. I was never a fan of his movies, but have now succumbed totally and completely. I'm now a fan of his, a fan of Colin Firth and a fan of Emma Stone. Both the leads were stellar, performances demanding of only the best to pull off a film like this. Emma Stone was glowing with magic, while Colin Firth impressed with finesse. 

I'm not sure if its a satire on religion, using magic as its theme, or tool, but I do know it does address the irrationalism of love. 

Colin Firth is a professional illusionist as well as a renowned debunker of psychics. Approached by an old friend to help debunk a seemingly authentic psychic, he willingly pits his wits against his greatest challenge yet, a nemesis who could potentially knock him out of his senses.

It felt like watching a witty play, entertaining, upclose and personal. I'm sure it's Woody Allen's style (watched a couple of his previous movies); opening credit scenes without any background (black) coupled with playful upbeat music (and soundtrack), witty dialogue, mostly humorous but comes across more "stage-play-like" than "real-life" and a huge focus on the dialogue instead of fast paced cut scenes or CG. And usually, there's an engaging plot to back it, with the all-hated abrupt cliffhanger-like fade out ending scenes. Only this time, the ending was a stunning closer. 

I love how the magic of old school cinematography triumphs in this modern era through the lens of Woody Allen. Old school cinematography had more focus on characters, dialogues and scenes. In layman's terms, it's like watching a movie with lesser frames (settings) per second, or minute. Ok, perhaps that's a bad analogy. Basically, it's slower paced, and more engaging.

The lack of elaborate CG (though there's some CG of the countryside background during the driving scenes) further proves that it doesn't take impressive CG or Hollywood A-listers for a movie to reach the moon, it just takes an old school "observatory" to be able to get there. 

While there were some exposé, there was no harm done. Magic in the Moonlight was, simply put, beautiful. An absolute delight. An absolute eye opener. An absolute wonder.