‘Magic in the Moonlight’ NYT Review

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/25/movies/magic-in-the-moonlight-another-woody-allen-odd-couple.html?smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=MO_MSO_20140725&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1388552400000&bicmet=1420088400000&_r=2

“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.