Manhattan (1979)
The Cast
Woody Allen .... Isaac Davis
Diane Keaton .... Mary Wilkie
Michael Murphy .... Yale
Mariel Hemingway .... Tracy
Meryl Streep .... Jill
Anne Byrne Hoffman .... Emily
Karen Allen .... Television Actor #2
David Rasche .... Television Actor #3
Wallace Shawn .... Jeremiah
Everywhere that I've looked for a bit of background research on this movie makes a point of being sure to tell me that this is Woody Allen's least favourite movie of his own. He was so dissatisfied with the end product that apparently he offered to direct another film for free to make up for this lacklustre one. Yet everyone seems to sing the praises of Manhattan. It's consistently in the IMDB Top 250 (which really means almost nothing since the three Lord of the Rings movies are in the Top 20 and only one of them deserves to be there), it was number 46 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Laughs list, and it was nominated for two Academy Awards. Apparently nobody but Woody actually watched the movie.
Perhaps if I hadn't recently watched Husbands and Wives I'd be more likely to give Manhattan a favourable review. They appear to be essentially the same movie thematically speaking. Whereas Husbands started off with Woody's character in a stable relationship with an older woman and almost ending in a weird, unsavoury romance with a younger woman, the opposite is true of Manhattan. When the eternal voiceover that begins Manhattan finally ends, we see that Isaac (Allen) is in a pub with 17 years young Tracy (Hemingway) and at that point I was pretty much resigned to seeing a typical Woody Allen movie.
What that means of course, is that there's some interesting dialogue, some very funny lines, neurotic characters and New York. There's a plotline involving some ex of Woody's character doing some unspeakable atrocity to him, in this case his ex-wife turned lesbian (Streep) is writing a book based on her relationship and subsequent break-up with Isaac. Usually one of the characters is committing some form of adultery - Yale (Murphy) is cheating on Emily (Hoffman) with Mary (Keaton) - and this will all become very predictable in short fashion. Well, hopefully short fashion.
Normally I don't fall asleep during movies, but the combination of a predictable movie and retail job woes at this time of year made me start to nod off. I enjoyed a few of the performances (though I have no idea how Hemingway received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for this one), there were a couple very funny lines, some of the cinematography was stunning, but overall it was just a resounding meh. What I guess I'm trying to say here is that Woody was right about this movie. It's over-praised for what it is. Perhaps if this wasn't Woody's most commercially successful movie at the time, he would've gone out of his way to branch out more often instead of just going back to the tried-and-true formula. Decidedly average movie even for fans of great dialogue.
2.5 / 5