Magic in the Moonlight

Woody Allen’s latest movie has an intriguing title for anybody in love with the art of magic – “Magic in the Moonlight”. The plot is set in the 1920s. In the opening scene a famous Chinese conjurer, Wei Ling Soo, is just about to make an elephant vanish in front of a packed theatre audience. The audience is taken aback by the performer’s skill and dramatic stage presence.

After the show Wei Ling Soo removes his oriental stage make up in his dressing room, and it comes as no surprise to us that without the crooked moustache and the gold and scarlet robe he is a proper Englishman. His real name is Stanley Crawford (Colin Firth), and besides being a conjurer he is also a sceptic and an expert in exposing fraudulent mediums. This evening he gets company in the dressing room: a fellow illusionist asks for his help. A young, beautiful clairvoyant, Sophie Baker (Emma Stone), has wrapped a wealthy widow and her son around her little finger in the south of France.

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