Review: 'Coup de Chance' will make you laugh till it hurts

Woody Allen's "Coup de Chance," his best-reviewed film in years, is the 50th feature from the filmmaker who denies talk that this effervescent rom-com which turns suddenly lethal will be his last film.

Good news for fans of the Oscar-winning virtuoso, an indisputable master of his craft, whose 16 nominations for best original screenplay remain a record.

"Coup de Chance" (meaning "stroke of luck"), available in theaters or on demand, finds Allen in Paris where the rich swan around chic boulevards speaking French with Allen's witty English subtitles. Legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro creates images so luscious you'll want to lick the screen. And it's impossible not to bop along with the jazz score centered on Herbie Hancock's classic "Cantaloupe Island." 

Leading an exceptional cast is the captivating Lou de Laâge as Fanny, a lithe Parisian who does something peripheral at an art auction house while her friends whisper that she's a trophy wife to older Jean (Melvil Poupaud), a financier who explains his job is to "make the rich richer."

Is Fanny too sexy? "That doesn't exist," laughs her doting husband. "That's like being too rich."  

The two bounce around the City of Light enjoying their shallow privileges until one day, in a stroke of luck, Fanny runs into Alain (Niels Schneider, wonderful), a young bohemian novelist who says he's been crushing on her since their school days in New York. And voila it's l'amour.

Not for long, though, since Jean turns out to be the jealous type. There are rumors in Paris that he might have played a part in knocking off his former partner. Is Alain in danger?

No spoilers, except to say that "Coup de Chance" is not the first time Allen has mixed humor with homicide. He does just that in two of his best films, 1989's "Crimes and Misdemeanors" and 2005's "Match Point" in which murder goes unpunished in a godless universe.

That it doesn't happen quite that way in "Coup de Chance" is due to the film's most intriguing and indelibly funny character. Her name is Aline. She's Fanny's mother and an amateur sleuth. And she's played by the marvelous Valérie Lemercier with such scene-stealing verve that you smile in anticipation every time she nudges the plot to its terrifically twisted conclusion.

For those who grew up on Allen's films— the masterpieces from "Annie Hall" to "Zelig (and don't forget "Manhattan" and "Hannah and Her Sisters") to the misfires such as "Interiors" and "Shadows and Fog"—"Coup de Chance" is a chance to renew that relationship.

Allen had a lot to say about relationships, most profoundly in "Annie Hall" when his character told Diane Keaton's Annie: "A relationship, I think, is like a shark. It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we have on our hands is a dead shark."

He used to make a film a year, regular as clockwork but financial and personal setbacks have stalled Allen's career, including continued discussions of allegations that Allen sexually molested his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in 1992. Allen fiercely denies the allegation for which he was never charged or prosecuted.

"Coup de Chance" is no dead shark. It's no career landmark either. But it is Allen moving forward, creating the kind of film he made his name on, the kind that makes you laugh till it hurts. And that's a stroke of luck indeed.