Dear, oh dear. Oh dear.Even the ten lines of text that are required for these reviews is more than this film deserves. Watching Rough Magic is like watching a whole heap of (not necessarily high quality, either) films from genres of magical-realism, 1920's/30's adventure, fantasy, atomic-power-angst, comedy, romance, coming-of-age and film noir all at the same time. On little sleep.The resulting after-images in your mind would be a big jumbled, confusing, possibly brilliant somewhere, badly told mess. Or you can just watch this film and get the same effect.I think the last scenes in particular are added just to show the audience that, 'yes we made a bad film but at least you weren't expecting *this*'.And after watching this I couldn't shake the feeling that there was the potential for a brilliant film from all the badly fitting pieces. It will keep you guessing, at least, right up until the end. But only because you might be expecting a coherent story.

I've tried 3 times to give this movie a chance to get it's point across. It doesn't. As in most films Russell Crowe is in he gives his all but the story is pretty convoluted and doesn't give you much to care about. It gets pretty stupid towards the end. We kind of understood the owl showing up but never could understand the green lizard. The saving grace is the scene between Alec and Myra in the church and of course, somehow, Russell winds up dancing with his leading lady, something that happened in several of his earlier films. The beginning of the film Russell and Bridget are very Bogart & Bacall and the banter flows pretty well, even if we have heard it before. If you have the need to see Mr. Crowe there are better films to choose from. I'm still waiting for Russell to be cast in a good romantic comedy, something like "Bringing Up Baby" and Lauren Graham can certainly throw out the Katherine Hepburn lines to him.

All Russell Crow fans should check this cute movie out! This is not an intense movie, but nice on a rainy day or late at night if you can't sleep. Too bad Bridget Fonda doesn't have enough meat on her bones to fill out her very sexy outfits...

When I first saw this movie I knew I liked it immensely, but I didn't really know why. I had to see it several times before I really "got" it. It's a very very different movie. The symbolism was a treat! Things which were shown in a fantasy-type way are things which happen in real life--e.g. bitterness being shown as an egg being laid that when hatched, is a venomous spider. In this movie, just about anything can happen! Love is magic but love can't happen with bitterness in the way; likewise, magic can't happen without love. The actors exuded the '40's style with finesse with the witty lines, and Bridget Fonda's costumes were exciting. I will surely watch this movie again and share it with others.