Everyone says I love you
Sometimes it’s curious why I would not watch a film. In this case, it is perhaps because I haven’t really heard that many good things about it – and because it’s a musical. I am only slowly coming to like the musical genre, although I am probably always going to dislike how silly and shallow they mostly are. In music class, I had to watch “West Side Story” and “Grease” and absolutely hated them. At that time, I knew nothing about modern musical films such as “Chicago” or “Dancer in the Dark” and I never saw any of the old Hollywood musicals. As for Woody Allen’s musical, I should have known that it won’t lack depth too much.
Of course this is an ensemble film, which is probably its biggest problem. None of the characters are fleshed out, not even Woody Allen’s own, although of course he always plays a very similar type of character, the neurotic character trait overwhelming everything else. “I can’t believe it!” – “I don’t understand you anymore!” – “What are you doing?” It’s so incredibly weird when somebody else says Woody Allen’s trademark sentences, especially when it’s Edward Norton. I mean, wow, Edward Norton as the boring, sweet beau. He’s not even good-looking enough for that!
Indeed, the weirdest part about this film (besides the fact that it looks surprisingly modern and by far not as 90’s as it should for a 1996 film) are the actors. Edward Norton, Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore, Natalie Portman (!!!) – I was so surprised and somewhat happy to see them in a Woody Allen movie. It’s very unusual for him after all. All in all, I think they are absolutely wonderful together. The story has a nice flow, it touches many typical Woody Allen topics in life such as life in New York, people telling their shrinks about their lives, the death of a family member and finally Woody Allen’s all-time favorite, the difficulty to be in a relationship when you haven’t actually gotten over somebody else. Oh yeah, sex, well there isn’t so much of it in this film, but that’s acceptable; Woody Allen is just as funny without the sex.
Now the big question is: What’s so bad about the film except that the characters in the ensemble didn’t really go into depth? Personally I had a lot of fun and even enjoyed the dancing scenes, because they were so well-made and outright funny. There is no doubt that any Woody Allen could be comparable to “Annie Hall” or “Manhattan”, but for me, it’s definitely a great film that I would definitely enjoy to see again, and if it’s just to see Julia Roberts and Woody Allen in a relationship.