Woody Allen's 29th feature, Sweet and Lowdown, is an insubstantial mockumentary in which Depression-era jazz guitarist Emmet Ray (Sean Penn) pimps, boozes, squanders dough, plays heavenly guitar, steals from friends, shoots at rats, and squints at the ladies — most notably, a mute laundress named Hattie (Samantha Morton). The beauty of Morton's Oscar-nominated performance is the way she finds, with a gamine's grin and an orphan's pout, more ways to say I love you than Penn's tormented hero could begin to understand. B-
EW's GRADE
B-Details Movie Rated: PG-13; Genres: Comedy, Drama; With: Samantha Morton and Sean Penn; Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
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