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New Century of Cinema
DOWSE Guide to the
Movies
by Tony Lee editor of
Pigasus
Press
Sweet And Lowdown
Director: Woody Allen
95 minutes (PG)
review by Simon Woodward
It is 1930s gangsters and jazz-era America. Sean Penn plays the
emotionally-repressed, egotistical, legendary guitar player, Emmet Ray. This is a
tragi-comedy intercut with to-camera monologues from Woody Allen and other jazz
commentators, who weave the tale of the fictional Ray into the lives of real
characters of the era.
Although the self-proclaimed second greatest guitar player in the world (there
is a running gag concerning Ray's pathological fear of gypsy guitarist Django
Rheinhard leading him to faint in the man's presence) Ray cannot focus enough
emotionally or financially to make himself a star. Although he wins the unquestioning
love of Hattie (Oscar nominated Samantha Morton) a mute laundress who sees Ray's true
self expressed in his music, he cowardly sneaks out on her, justifying his actions to
himself by claiming he is an artist who cannot afford to be tied down.
Years later, after a fiery marriage to a socialite and wannabe writer played by
Uma Thurman - who gets to deliver some great lines of cod psychology - he realises
the opportunity he missed. Returning to Hattie, he finds her happily married with
children. The world has not waited for his star to pass again and he fades from the
jazz scene a broken man. Penn's is an hilarious, bravura performance, hideously
selfish and insecure, finding his few pleasures in shooting rats at the dump or
watching trains pass. His pronouncements on his own greatness induce simultaneous
laughter and cringes. However, Samantha Morton nearly steals the show with her
soulful mute performance. An unexpected rarity from a writer/director who normally
likes his characters to yammer up a storm.
Back to Movies on Dowse index.
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