He's Sour; She's Sweet

By RICHARD CORLISS

The past few Woody Allen films have flirted, in a provocatively meanspirited way, with the public aspects of his personality. Deconstructing Harry focused on Woody the selfish lover, Celebrity on Woody the capricious star. The new one has reverbs of Woody's Monday-night gigs in a classical jazz ensemble. Sweet and Lowdown is about one sour fellow, but it's another character who gives this minor movie a surprising lilt and afterglow.

Emmet Ray (Sean Penn) is the premier American jazz guitarist. His fingers sculpt gorgeous sounds from the six strings; I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles was never so poignant or supple as in his hands. But Emmet is also a pimp, petty thief, paranoid...if there's a bad word that starts with p, he's likely to be it. Driven by ego, dogged by insecurity, he rationalizes his outrages as the spillage of an overflowing talent.

Penn does bold justice to this lowdown giant. But Samantha Morton, as Emmet's "mute orphan half-wit" of a girlfriend, is the sweet revelation. Rarely has a performer mined such complex and potent emotion from such simple materials: a smile, a shrug, an attentive winsomeness. She hardly nods or shakes her head in response to a question, yet always conveys the meaning and feeling. In an age of actors' tics and rantings, such austere clarity is worth cherishing. The interpretive magic that Emmet Ray achieves with six strings, Morton conjures with none.

--By Richard Corliss