**** = perfection *** = good, not great ** = not good, not bad - merely acceptable * = not acceptable yet not horrid - merely very bad ZERO = horrid - avoid at all costs 1/2 = icing on the cake
Released 1996 A Woody Allen film, "Everyone Says I Love You". Starring: Alan Alda, Woody Allen, Drew Barrymore, Lukas Haas, Goldie Hawn, Gaby Hoffman, Natasha Lyone, Edward Norton, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Tim Roth, David Ogden Stiers, Scotty Bloch, Patrick Chranshaw, Billy Crudup, Trude Klein, Robert Knepper Rating: **1/2 Letter grade: B-
Everyone Says I Love You begins quaint and charming; two young lovers struggle to sing Just You, Just Me, to modest results. Well, it's the thought that matters. The pace picks up quickly as the young DJ introduces herself. "We're not your normal family from a musical comedy" she explains. Nope. And ESILY isn't your normal musical either; it isn't so much a musical as an homage to musicals. Mr. Allen clearly loves the genre, but his love song towards it bears mixed results. There are inspired moments to be sure; Making Whoopee is sung in a hospital, there's a ghostly musical number, and a couple big laughs along the way. Allen moves his camera around hesitatively imatating the manner in which old boisterous MGM musicals watched their stars. All this is fine; this is Wody Allen, not Stanley Donnen and Alan Alda not Gene Kelley. But ESILY isn't really the attempt to revive musicals it was supposed to be; rather it's just a smile at old times - the equivalent of a "wish you were here" postcard. It begins first rate; as I watched I thought to myself: this could be a great film. But somewhere along the way Allen loses track. After Drew Barrymore leaves Tim Roth I realized that it's a one joke movie and the joke is on the movies people; they are pale and shallow silly things that move from one date to the next not thinking back.They are only one dimensional and we never quite feel close enough to them for it to work. That's not to say that this is bad; it's well crafted and paced but it is lacking in a soul. The dialogue isn't really crisp. In fact, I believe that this is something of a low point for the movie musical. Allen - holding in his hands the entire genre - walks a fine line between quiet comedy and self parody. All the contents are here; it's the magic that's missing. ESILY runs short at 1:40. While it's never really boring or overlong you might yawn once or twice - like me. While it's enjoyable I have mostly mixed feelings towards it. I love musicals with all my heart - I really do - but I still don't quite like this; it left me with an uneasy, unsatisfied feeling. I can't quite reccemond except to a fellow musical lover to whom I warn it's not really that great. It is rated R, for some minor cursing and one sexual situaation, but otherwise it's fine for the family. I give it **1/2 and B-.
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