Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A nutty inventor, his frustrated wife, a philosopher cousin, his much younger fiancée, a randy doctor, and a free-thinking nurse spend a summer weekend in and around a stunning - and possibly magical - country house.
Woody Allen's pastoral comedy is visually ravishing — Gordon Willis's sun-dappled cinematography of the Hudson Valley countryside is genuinely exceptional, recalling Renoir and Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night in lush golden light. The ensemble cast (Allen, Mia Farrow, José Ferrer, Mary Steenburgen, Tony Roberts, Julie Hagerty) performs with charm and polish. However, the plot is one of Allen's thinner efforts — a loosely structured round-robin of romantic shuffling that never gains much momentum or dramatic weight. The ending, with its whimsical supernatural resolution for Ferrer's character, feels rushed and insufficiently earned. Novelty sits in the middle: it's a recognizable Bergman homage with Allen's comic stamp, pleasant but not among his most distinctive or daring work.