Roger Ebert liked Woody Allen a lot, and he ended up giving 4-star ratings to nine of his films by my count. Including this one.
This was Allen's first serious film, and not coincidentally, perhaps, the first film he wrote and directed that he didn't appear in.
It's the story of three sisters. You see them on the DVD cover, in that famous, staged scene. They're carefully arranged, looking out the window at the stillness of the ocean. That's the film's last scene, much different from the roaring waters that ended up swallowing their mother.
Their mother wasn't well, and their father decided, at the age of 63, that he no longer needed to be responsible for her wellbeing. He finds another woman who makes him feel more youthful and alive, and after a month, he marries her.
It's a lot for his daughters to accept. These daughters have their own "life issues." Like a lot of Allen characters, they all want to be creative, and they all want to have purposeful lives; yet none of them really know how to be creative. None of them know what their purpose should be.
The mother. She was "creative." She designed interiors. It's an interesting metaphor. The idea that someone, an interior decorator, designs living spaces, but at what cost? Can they be lived in? Do we really need to "create" spaces to live in? Why not just live in spaces that express who we are naturally?
As reviewers have noted, this film is Allen's homage to Bergman. Or maybe it's Allen trying to bring Bergman to a wider audience. Or maybe it's Allen "experimenting" with a Bergman drama. I've watched a few Bergman films, but I'm not expert in his work. Yet.
I guess if Allen considers himself still to be in his apprentice phase, I'm okay with him writing and directing his own Bergman film. Otherwise, I'm not sure I like it. It's like making an unnecessary copy of an original. Psycho is a great film, for example, but there was never a never to make a frame-by-frame copy of the original. Likewise, there was no need for Allen to make a Bergman film. Maybe he simply needed to get the idea out of his system.
Four stars? Seems a bit much. Well-done serious film? Sure. But maybe a film that would be better if it weren't so serious? If it didn't try to smoother everything Allen had been in his previous 1970s films?
Rating: 3/5 stars
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