“Magic in the Moonlight,” Woody Allen’s
new film, stages a debate that will be familiar to anyone who has seen
more than a couple of the previous 43. There are various ways to
characterize the argument: between reason and superstition; between
doubt and faith; between realism and magic. On one side is the belief in
some kind of unseen, metaphysical force governing the universe; on the
other is the certainty, shared by the director, that no such thing
exists. Not incidentally — and not for the first time in Mr. Allen’s
oeuvre — the opposed positions are advanced by a dyspeptic middle-aged
intellectual and a much younger, relatively untutored woman. Among the
big jokes this time around: She misattributes a literary quotation and
seems never to have heard of Nietzsche.
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