leonblackwood Review: I really enjoyed this movie. Sean Penn really put in a brilliant performance along with the other actors who contributed into making this movie a great watch. Throughout the movie you see people telling there own stories about the talented Emmet Ray, including Woody Allen who had wrote and directed this movie extremely well. I hadn't heard of this talented guitarist before watching this film so I found this movie interesting and enjoyable. In the film, Emmet Ray was a completely different person when he was playing his guitar to when he was womanising and breaking hearts. Mixed with his outrageous spending habits and his addiction to stealing, there is enough drama throughout the movie to keep you entertained. The main shocking aspect to the film has to be Sean Penn's guitar playing. Woody Allen made a point of showing the audience that it was actually Sean Penn playing the guitar so I have to tip my hat to Penn for learning such a difficult, unique way of playing the instrument. Anyway, if you know of Emmet Ray then its definitely worth a watch and its also worth watching just for entertainment. Watchable!  Round-Up: Emmet Ray really did have a weird and wonderful life. From dating a mute, falling into a house with loads of cash and marrying a lady who he didn't really know, he really lived each day as it comes. His random unpredictable lifestyle made everyone around him wonder if he would have been a better guitarist if he got his life together, but he never thought that he had a problem. He was a very cocky individual that had his head in the stars, which is why the concept for the film was so good. Sean Penn really did play his role well along with Samantha Morton who played the mute convincingly. The only thing is that you don't really know what truly happened in some of the scenes because his life was documented. People throughout the movie are using hearsay more than evidence about the mans life, which is made obvious when you hear there stories about the man. Anyway, enough said, watch the film.Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $4.2millionI recommend this movie to people who are into there Woody Allen movies which follows events in Emmet Rays life, who was a talented guitarist with personal issues. 7/10

The_Film_Cricket Emmett Ray is a man who can't see past the end of his nose. Were it not for his fingers which play jazz music beautiful enough to make angels weep he would probably be a bum living in an alley.Woody Allen's 1930s comedy 'Sweet and Lowdown' is a character study about a character whose music is sweet but whose personality is as pleasant as bad cheese. He is legendary as 'The Second Greatest Jazz Guitarist in the World'. However his idea of a date is to take a woman to the tracks to watch the trains or down to the garbage dump to shoot rats.He meets a mute woman named Hattie (Samantha Morton) who is just exactly the kind of woman he likes: mute and waiting on him and foot. Like most things in his life he doesn't know what a gift he has and can't forgive himself when he gives it up.Morton has the tougher role, she has to convince us that she really loves this worthless lug but has to do it without spoken word. Her face is sweet, expressive and we almost always know what she is thinking.Emmett has one pall over his life. He has a phobia about meeting Django Reinhart, legendary for being 'The Greatest Jazz Guitarist in the World'. Emmett does eventually run into Reinhart providing one of the movie's funniest moments.Emmett would be almost impossible to take in this film were he not played by Sean Penn. Penn is a brilliant actor who knows how to disappear into a role and make us care about the character. Here he has the tough task of making us care about someone who is a complete jerk. He makes Emmett Ray into a lovable guy even when we know we aren't suppose to like him.That is also based on the strength of Woody Allen's writing. He has written a fiction chapter of jazz history about a man out of touch with everything but his music.

Michael Thompson If you do not want to know scenes in this film, do not read any further.I watched this film because I like Woodey Allen, I like Sean Penn, and I like the music, but the entire film was swamped for me by the wonderful,charismatic performance of Hattie, played by Samantha Morton.She was absolutely delightful from start to finish.I am sure many other viewers of this movie felt the same way.Her quiet persona in this film, sold the movie.I loathed the way Sean Pean's character, virtually ignored her throughout the film, whereas another, and decent man, would have cared about her because she was dumb. I felt myself caring, I actually felt like knocking Sean Penn's ignorant character into the middle of next week, more than once.Sean Penn's character was shallow and arrogant, Hattie was quiet and loving toward Penn's character. After living with Hattie for a short while she brought him gloves for his birthday that she had remembered, however he ditched her, because this was how he liked to treat all woman.At the tail end of the film, he spots her sitting on a bench and goes over to her to say hi, he then rambles on while apologizing.He then is honestly shocked to discover that she was now married.I will leave out the ending scene, because it shows how pathetic Penn's character was.Samantha Morton, was great. She definitely stole this film, as far as I am concerned.For her performance only, I award this movie 10 points.

Gordon-11 This film follows the life of a great guitar player, who wants to make it big but acts irresponsibly almost to the point of self destruction.I was expecting the usual Woody Allen witty dialogs, sarcasm and humour, but "Sweet and Lowdown" failed to provide any. The main character, Emmet Ray, is an egocentric, rude, irresponsible and hurtful man. He is so unlikeable, that I do not want to now about him, or care about him. I wonder why a film about him has to be made. The pacing of the story is slow, making the film a terrible bore. Even Sean Penn's great acting fails to revive the film to a watchable level.I like Woody Allen's films a lot, but "Sweet and Lowdown" is a major disappointment.