When Woody Allen wrote Annie Hall he included a side-plot about a neighbour that died in mysterious circumstances (inspired by real events). However the film didn't have time for it. Here he returns to recycle some of his old ideas.
Clever observation of real life (well the one according to Woody) and some funny lines, but this is so stretched out that you fear it is going to fall apart at the seams. Lots of this comes across as a rehash (Woody is in the literary world (again!) and Keaton is a dits (again!) and Alda is an intellectual writer!) and if you haven't been a fan of his over previous work then this is NOT going to win you over.
The one problem with Woody Allen is that some people see his yacking classes as satire, but I don't think it is. He thinks that is how everybody lives, behaves and talks: People live in nice apartments, eat out a lot, have nice friends who swap barbs. He opened up a bit by including four letter words and sexual references later, but this is part of his old school.
The problem with this piece is that the thriller part has nowhere to go other than the track it is clearly on. Given that it doesn't seem to be anything other than a make-weight I have problems taking it seriously. Woody, If you want to write a thriller, write a thriller, but you seemed frightened of doing it, so you opted to add a bit thriller business to your usual same-old same-old.
Clever observation of real life (well the one according to Woody) and some funny lines, but this is so stretched out that you fear it is going to fall apart at the seams. Lots of this comes across as a rehash (Woody is in the literary world (again!) and Keaton is a dits (again!) and Alda is an intellectual writer!) and if you haven't been a fan of his over previous work then this is NOT going to win you over.
The one problem with Woody Allen is that some people see his yacking classes as satire, but I don't think it is. He thinks that is how everybody lives, behaves and talks: People live in nice apartments, eat out a lot, have nice friends who swap barbs. He opened up a bit by including four letter words and sexual references later, but this is part of his old school.
The problem with this piece is that the thriller part has nowhere to go other than the track it is clearly on. Given that it doesn't seem to be anything other than a make-weight I have problems taking it seriously. Woody, If you want to write a thriller, write a thriller, but you seemed frightened of doing it, so you opted to add a bit thriller business to your usual same-old same-old.