Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

The_Film_Cricket Emmett Ray is a man who can't see past the end of his nose. Were it not for his fingers which play jazz music beautiful enough to make angels weep he would probably be a bum living in an alley.Woody Allen's 1930s comedy 'Sweet and Lowdown' is a character study about a character whose music is sweet but whose personality is as pleasant as bad cheese. He is legendary as 'The Second Greatest Jazz Guitarist in the World'. However his idea of a date is to take a woman to the tracks to watch the trains or down to the garbage dump to shoot rats.He meets a mute woman named Hattie (Samantha Morton) who is just exactly the kind of woman he likes: mute and waiting on him and foot. Like most things in his life he doesn't know what a gift he has and can't forgive himself when he gives it up.Morton has the tougher role, she has to convince us that she really loves this worthless lug but has to do it without spoken word. Her face is sweet, expressive and we almost always know what she is thinking.Emmett has one pall over his life. He has a phobia about meeting Django Reinhart, legendary for being 'The Greatest Jazz Guitarist in the World'. Emmett does eventually run into Reinhart providing one of the movie's funniest moments.Emmett would be almost impossible to take in this film were he not played by Sean Penn. Penn is a brilliant actor who knows how to disappear into a role and make us care about the character. Here he has the tough task of making us care about someone who is a complete jerk. He makes Emmett Ray into a lovable guy even when we know we aren't suppose to like him.That is also based on the strength of Woody Allen's writing. He has written a fiction chapter of jazz history about a man out of touch with everything but his music.

tobias_681 In the core of this movie is the fictive character of Emmet Ray who says of himself that he is the 2nd best guitarist in the world right after Django Reinhardt (who actually lived). The movie tackles some other subjects but focuses on Emmet and his problems. It works quite well because Sean Penn gives a terrific performance. The movie also portrays the 30's quite well and it got some good cinematography (like most of Woody's movies).Woody pays homage to Bergman's The Passion of Anna with the interviews he uses to narrate some of the story and express some thoughts from another point of view. The interviews are a very minor part of the movie, but a fun (and unique) little element. The movie is also a homage to Fellini's La Strada. The 2 main characters in Sweet and Lowdown resemble the two main characters in La Strada so if you enjoyed Sweet and Lowdown you might find these two movies interesting (it probably also works the other way around).If you haven't seen it yet here's my conclusion: It's not a masterpiece (far from), but it's a good movie that should especially be a treat for musicians, other artists and Allen or Penn fans. If you like character drama and don't mind the comedic touch this is a movie for you. If you're not that interested in character dramas you won't hate it but it's not a movie I would highly recommend to you.

Michael Thompson If you do not want to know scenes in this film, do not read any further.I watched this film because I like Woodey Allen, I like Sean Penn, and I like the music, but the entire film was swamped for me by the wonderful,charismatic performance of Hattie, played by Samantha Morton.She was absolutely delightful from start to finish.I am sure many other viewers of this movie felt the same way.Her quiet persona in this film, sold the movie.I loathed the way Sean Pean's character, virtually ignored her throughout the film, whereas another, and decent man, would have cared about her because she was dumb. I felt myself caring, I actually felt like knocking Sean Penn's ignorant character into the middle of next week, more than once.Sean Penn's character was shallow and arrogant, Hattie was quiet and loving toward Penn's character. After living with Hattie for a short while she brought him gloves for his birthday that she had remembered, however he ditched her, because this was how he liked to treat all woman.At the tail end of the film, he spots her sitting on a bench and goes over to her to say hi, he then rambles on while apologizing.He then is honestly shocked to discover that she was now married.I will leave out the ending scene, because it shows how pathetic Penn's character was.Samantha Morton, was great. She definitely stole this film, as far as I am concerned.For her performance only, I award this movie 10 points.

runamokprods Sweet, gentle, sad, with amazing performances by Sean Penn and Samantha Morton. Interestingly, this got mixed reviews on release for being 'small' in scope, but to me that's its great strength. As screwed up as the Sean Penn character is, we still get pulled into him, and it makes for a lovely portrait of a sad, lost, brilliant jazz guitarist. Penn and Allen conspire to create one of the most simultaneously infuriating and oddly ingratiating characters of recent memoryNo big conclusions or statements, just a subtle, brilliantly acted comic and tragic study of humanity. That's enough make this the strongest Woody Allen film for a number of years.