EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU (77)

Directed by: Woody Allen

Starring: Woody Allen, Goldie Hawn, Julia Roberts, Edward Norton

The Pitch: Romantic problems and misunderstandings of an all-singin', all-dancin' Upper East Side family.

Theo Sez: "We're not the typical family you find in a musical comedy," says our teenage narrator, which is fair enough : after all, the families in most musical comedies - MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, say - go through the occasional moment of darkness en route to a happy ending, whereas the one here seems to live in a constant state of blissful harmony (even their crises are a matter of blithe one-liners and hockey games in the living-room). Given Woody's personal troubles this thoroughly functional extended clan of ex-spouses and half-siblings should probably be filed under "wishful thinking", but it's typical of what may be his mellowest movie ever, a wry collection of favourite songs and old preoccupations (the girls eavesdropping on a stranger's secrets recall ANOTHER WOMAN ; the theme of finding, then getting bored with, one's perfect partner dates back to "The Lunatic's Tale" in his short-story collection SIDE EFFECTS). It's a film in which things just happen, the wispy narrative happily put on hold for a troupe of fake Grouchos to sing a French version of "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" or a bunch of trick-or-treating kids (dressed as pieces of fruit) to do "The Chiquita Banana Song", and actually - unless you're allergic to old musicals, or the music of the 30s and 40s in general - it's a lovely movie, diffident and relaxed, a charmer : even as you sense that Woody is using these old songs for their (probably specious) nostalgia value, to call up a time when Things Were Better - when the world was innocent, and families got along - you also sense, from the film's playful looseness and good humour more than anything, that he's not trying to hustle you (he probably doesn't believe it himself). It's a game of wouldn't-it-be-nice-if, the prevailing mood a bittersweet resignation, old loves ruefully remembered. It's not much of a film as such - the one-liners are as lame as they've been in all the recent Woodys (age has definitely dulled his wit), and there are dead spots whenever we move away from the family itself (the scenes with Roberts and Tim Roth feel thin and overstretched) ; but it hardly matters. No other film this year has found so many magical moments - even if the bits in between aren't always very inspired.