Maybe this is where the downward slide started. Woody Allen's
self-indulgence, which served him well early on, began to pull him down
with this bit of autobiography. A nice idea--life during Allen's
childhood, in the "radio days"--arrives too disjointed, too hit or miss,
too erratic to be called a success. The film is better during the
family sequences than the inevitable, shoehorned-in Mia Farrow storyline
(back when she and he were still tight). The overall cast is excellent,
the presentation is sterling and accurate to the period, but that
self-indulgence--and some heavy-handed "statement" scenes--do just
enough to pull this movie down. Not awful, but not what could have been.
