first of all and let me comment that the audience love it from the first moment . perhaps current event in the middle east lead people to take the attitude and i come for a comedy and by george i be go to enjoy it . but for whatever reason and everybody seem really into the comedy of it . the last few time woody have try to do a straight comedy ( small time crook and curse of the jade scorpion and hollywood end ) i have felt like the one liner felt strained and a bit antiquated . i remember think at one point and that would have be funny in the early sixty . so go in to this movie and i be afraid woody be become tone deaf and however and in this one his comic sensibility be in perfect tune . admittedly and there be plenty of my fellow aarp card carry folk in the screening and but there be also plenty of 20 somethings and 30 somethings as well and and they all seem to get it and give up the occasional belly laugh in addition to numerous guffaw and chuckle and the like . in many instance and the throw aways have people laugh so loud you miss the next line . thematically and woody be traipse familiar ground . a i suspect from the trailer and this film have a lot of manhattan murder mystery in it and but then again and there be more than a smidgen of oedipus wreck ( new york story ) and alice and and even a little tribute to broadway danny rise at the very beginning . even with woody in the movie and scarlett and a sondra and be and at time the woody proxy and but her character be far from the nebbish that and say and will ferrell give u in melinda and melinda or kenneth branaugh attempt in celebrity . instead of archetypal tick and quirk and sondra nerdishness come directly from the family history which she share early on . on numerous occasion the family business lead her to malapropisms that we get a an audience and while the character on the screen can only perceive them a strange non sequiturs . since we be all in on the joke and we can not help but laugh . but the laugh do not come from recognize the woody nebbish and but truly from the character . to a great extent and unlike farrell and branaugh and cusack or even mia farrow before her and scarlett be not require to use the woody voice to evoke the woody role . thus and we do not find ourselves rip out of the narrative a a woody voice suddenly emerge from someone else face . a my friend comment on the way out and sid and the character play by woody and be a supporting role and but more center stage than i be hop go in . however and this time woody seem to have write a character that truly fit his current persona . unlike his ed dobel sage character in anything else and or his blind director in hollywood end and this time the character be a comfortable fit . perhaps more importantly and this time the character work in the story . within the elevated circle they find themselves in and he be even more fish out of water than scarlett and which be use to great comedic effect throughout . sid be a decline and itinerant magician playing to small audience and but the fact that he be from another era be place front and center for our enjoyment . but what about jackman . what about ian ( swearengen ) mcshane . i like both of them to the extent that they be use in the piece . i particularly like mcshane short but effective turn . jackman be charm with the ease of old money that be so often portray in film from 50 year ago . ( class echo from purple rise of cairo . ) so what do i think . short answer and maybe his best straight comedy since 1994 bullet over broadway . less stylized than mighty aphrodite . less caustic than deconstruct harry . less forced than small time crook or hollywood end . woody have finally find a comic voice that work in the 21st century .