The decline and fall of Woody Allen

Woody Allen has produced some memorable movies but his current offering is among the worst movies I have ever seen.   It is the story of a New York Socialite who discovers her crook husband has been fooling around and turns him into the FBI - after that she moves in with her sister - who is a working class woman in San Francisco.   This could be the start of an interesting character study - unfortunately the plot is weak and poorly developed; the dialogue is vapid; the characters are mostly one dimensional.   After about 30 minutes, I began to wonder whether it would get any better, it did not.   I did not find one character in the movie that was appealing or that I really cared about finding out what might happen next.  Like many of his other movies Allen uses jazz to bind the movie together.   In some that helps make the movie even better - in this one his choice of jazz is the best part of the movie.   Had the sound track been any louder we would not have had to listen to the drivel that passed for dialogue.

There are some characters in the supporting cast that could have become interesting - for example the boy friend of the sister - but the movie is so poorly developed that you never get a chance to make a clear judgment.  One professional reviewer called the movie "haunting"- haunted would be a better descriptor.

Allen's early movies were silly and inventive.   He then went through a period of self indulgent psycho babble that is easily forgotten.   The last movie of his that I went to before this one was Midnight in Paris which was an inventive tale about living in the present (and the past).   It was superb.   This movie has none of that appeal.