Coup de Chance

It is of a piece with Woody’s late-life output, a tale of coincidence, chance, and murder that charms at its best and at its worst evaporates upon contact with your eyeballs.

The film’s closing is abrupt and maybe too tidy, but “Coup de Chance” is still a clever little thriller. It displays an admirable economy of storytelling, and its jazz-heavy soundtrack helps maintain a jaunty mood.

This French bonbon, Woody Allen’s best reviewed film in years, is no career landmark. But its blend of humor and homicide shows Allen, 88, still moving forward, creating the kind of film he made his name on, the kind that makes you laugh till it hurts.

Fifty films into his career – he still makes about one per year -- Allen has his art down to a science.

The result at times carries the whiff of something simultaneously refreshing and nostalgic.

'Coup de Chance' restores the masterful filmmaker to his deserved position as one of the screen’s most profound storytellers. 


While feeling old hat in many ways, Coup de Chance also feels like a fresh breath in. At its best, a Woody Allen film can charm us all into it. Sure, it’s a familiar scenario, but the score and editing punctuate each note with care.

Even while Allen's screenplay is jumping schools of sharks on the race to the finish line, you might be just too darned charmed to care.

Allen’s actors all seem to be in their own movies, if not on different planets... moral statements spoken aloud are the movie equivalent of restless leg syndrome... Limber framing and assertive Steadicam [capture] a range of lighting palettes by Storaro.

Right up until its not-entirely-unexpected ending, the notion of chance is hammered so noisily at every turn that it’s a wonder a Greek chorus wasn’t added to guild the lily.