Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (July 24, 2024)
When most Woody Allen fans discuss his prime as a filmmaker, they tend to concentrate upon the 1970s. During that period he created broad farces like Bananas and Sleeper.
In addition, Allen created more introspective and thoughtful fare such as Manhattan and Love and Death. Allen won his only directorial Oscar for 1977’s Annie Hall, which also grabbed the Best Picture honor.
On the other hand, Allen’s 1980s material garners much less praise. However, I think this turns into an unfortunate oversight, as his best material from the 1980s equals his top work from the prior decade.
In this camp falls 1982’s A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy. For this one, Allen took inspiration from Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 release Smiles of a Summer Night.
Set in the early 20th century, inventor Andrew Hobbs (Allen) and his wife Adrian (Mary Steenburgen) own a summer house in the New York countryside. For a weekend, they host Dr. Maxwell Jordan (Tony Roberts), his nurse Dulcy Ford (Julie Hagerty), noted philosopher Dr. Leopold Sturgis (José Ferrer) and his vastly younger fiancée Ariel Weymouth (Mia Farrow).
As the three couples relax in this sedate setting, plenty of interpersonal shenanigans emerge. Various old relationships spark conflict and new situations add to the intrigue.
As a kid, I liked Allen’s flicks so I saw most in real time during the 1980s. Midsummer fell into this category, and until I watched the DVD in 2001, I recalled it as a dud.
Much to my surprise, I changed my mind. Upon further review, I found Comedy to be an erratic and flawed piece, but it offered a lot more wit and spark than I’d remembered.
The key to the relative success of Comedy stems from the fact that Allen keeps things pretty light. Despite the movie’s early 20th century period setting, he doesn’t attempt to create a historical program, and he doesn’t try to make matters too pretentious either.
Allen appears not to take things too seriously and he actually shows the ability to laugh at and with his characters, a facet absent from later works. Those include pompous roles like Leopold, as Allen appeared much less likely to show insufferable “intellectuals” like that as the windbags they are in his subsequent films.
Allen became so enamored of his little upper class intelligentsia that he lost touch with any other form of reality. This harmed his films.
Happily, Midsummer stays much closer to the real world, and it benefits from this glib touch. In regard to Leopold, it also helps that a terrific performer like Ferrer took the role.
Leopold’s the first character we see in Comedy, and Ferrer’s consistently fantastic as this overbearing and intolerant person. The assured cockiness with which he spouts every line makes the role work well, but Ferrer doesn’t allow Leopold to become too much of a caricature.
The rest of the cast does well also, especially due to the inclusion of Steenburgen, who helps ground the piece. She always seemed like a very warm and natural actress, and she ensures that the silliness doesn’t stray too far from reality. Allen displays his usual awkward charm and appears more relaxed and involved than normal.
Comedy packs in a reasonable number of funny bits, but it loses some points due to its generally cute and precious tone. Actually, “generally” is an overstatement, for most of the movie seems to lack these qualities. However, they appear frequently enough to cause a little disenchantment.
For one, Allen relies too much on some gimmicks, such as a flying machine invented by Andrew. He goes to this well too frequently, as it seems silly the first time and doesn’t gain charm with each reintroduction.
I also could have lived without the mystical aspects of the film’s final act. These lead to a dopey ending that feels goofy and inane.
The film uses an observational cinematographic style that also becomes a bit much at times. It’s one thing to use the camera in a detached, dispassionate way, but Allen sets it up with some angles that took me out of the film.
The “fly on the wall” style goes too far when we see characters via camera reflections or through semi-opaque walls. At that point, the technique feels forced and self-consciously arty and ruins the whole point of the style.
Nonetheless, I find A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy to offer a reasonably satisfying piece of Woody Allen filmmaking. The movie suffers from some excessively cutesy moments and won’t qualify as one of his best works.
As a whole, however, it delivers some funny material and it moves at an appropriately brisk and involving pace. Midsummer shouldn’t be anyone’s introduction to Allen, but it will entertain and amuse his fans.
