Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
A neurotic film critic obsessed with the movie Casablanca attempts to get over his wife leaving him by dating again with the help of a married couple and his illusory idol, Humphrey Bogart.
Woody Allen's charming comedic performance anchors this adaptation of his own Broadway play, with strong support from Diane Keaton in their early collaboration. The Bogart hallucination conceit is clever and executed with genuine wit, though the premise is somewhat one-note and the film never transcends its stage origins visually — cinematography is functional but stagey, lacking cinematic ambition. The plot is light and predictable in its romantic arc, though the neurotic-romantic-comedy voice is distinctively Allen's. The Casablanca callback ending is satisfying if not surprising.