Film Review: Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

6 months ago

(source: tmdb.org)

Apart from being one of the greatest living film makers today, Woody Allen is also known for his love of jazz music. He used to play it in his free time and his films often can be recognised for the use of period jazz as soundtrack. Yet, the jazz has seldom served directly as theme of his work. The notable exception to the rule is Allen’s 1999 period comedy Sweet and Lowdown.

The film is set in 1930s and deals with life and times of fictional character of Emmet Ray (played by Sean Penn), jazz musician described as “the second greatest guitarist in the world”. Ray has enormous talent and can create magic on the stage, but outside of it he is burdened with inferiority complex towards his contemporary and famous French jazz guitarist Django Rheinhardt, as well many of his character flaws. He is unrepentant womaniser, occasional thief and his inability to hold money he earns occasionally makes him supplement income as a pimp. One day he finds a laundress named Hattie (played by Samantha Morton), with whom he starts passionate relationship despite being mute. She proves good woman for him, but Emmet doesn’t know good thing when he has it and abandons her for the sake of Blanche Williams (played by Uma Thurman), elegant socialite who finds lower class Emmet exotic and inspiration for her own literary ambitions. When Blanche cheats on Emmet with gangster Al Torrio (played by Anthony LaPaglia), Emmet tries to return to Hattie only to find her happily married.

Almost always in search of new gimmick that would make his films different from each other, Allen here finds inspiration in presenting fiction in quasi-documentarian fashion. Unlike Zelig, in which Allen starred as fictional protagonist of mockumentary, Allen here is happy to function ans merely narrator and play himself as an expert in interviews commenting on Emmet Ray’s life and work. The story is told in more conventional fashion, as some sort of fictional biopic, with Allen’s script loosely inspired by Fellini’s La strada. Sean Penn is wonderful in his role, providing intense performance while playing undoubtedly talented and passionate artist who hides many personal insecurities and frustrations. British actress Samantha Morton is also quite good in her role, which was obviously modelled on silent era classics and early film comedienne Mabel Normand. Such great performances are, however, like in many Allen’s films, wasted on the story that suffers because of its episodic nature and Allen’s inability to maintain quality of jokes. It results in rather disappointing and emotionally underwhelming finale. However, general impression is saved by excellent soundtrack, making Sweet and Lowdown quite recommendable for those viewers who might not like Allen but they share his taste in music.

RATING: 6/10 (++)