This lifeless bargain bin Woody Allen want to be features flat direction with no edge; wit; or sense of timing. The thin plot of a one way love affair between a boy (who wants a relationship) and girl (who wants to stay just friends) grows stale fast. With no interesting or original spin or insight on this romantic dilemma offered; the film at a padded 90 minutes moves like a slug across a kitchen floor. Straddled with an overwritten half-baked script; the over eager actors gamely go on. Unsurprisingly, you grow to despise these characters rather than sympathize with them; wishing only for a quick and merciless ending - if you make it (3/4 of the audience didn't). Technically, the camera work is strictly by the numbers. It neither adds or subtracts anything from the film; though some compositions sporadically looked cramped and awkward. Besides direction, editing is the biggest below the line effort. Cuts and split screens are made or forced with no apparent rhyme or reason; leaving unsettling and jarring results for a supposed comedy. The picture could easily lose 10 or 15 minutes for the better with just a tighter trim alone. Art direction is non existent throughout the film. Over all, the movie has a feel of autobiography about it; but plays like self-flatulence instead. Funny to only those performing; but to the rest of us - it just smells bad. If there is a next time for Mr. Boyd; please study Annie Hall and Manhattan more closely - even Nora Ephron and Rob Reiner ripped off Woody better than this feeble wretched effort.
