classicsoncall
I'm always a bit conflicted watching a Woody Allen movie. The guy can be brilliant, but always in the back of my mind is the way he betrayed a long time relationship with Mia Farrow by taking up with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn. There was also the scandal revolving around adopted son Dylan Farrow, all of which makes me sour on Allen as a human being. It appears that in his early directed films, he might have offered some prophetic insight toward his behavior. For example, in "Bananas" there's a scene at a magazine stand where he's looking at a girlie mag, and he says to a bystander that he's doing a study on perversion and child molesting. Or take "Hannah and Her Sisters" where Allen's character blows off child molesting by saying that 'half the country is doing it'. So here, in "Manhattan", he's actually cavorting with a seventeen year old girlfriend portrayed by Mariel Hemingway, who oddly, turns out to be the most mature person out of all of Isaac's (Allen) acquaintances by the time the movie is over.Cinematically, I liked the film for it's crisp black and white portrayal of New York City, especially the night time scenes of distant cityscapes and beautifully lit street venues. As is often found in Allen's scripts, the characters deliver many of the nuances of love and life's miseries along with it's unintended consequences. Appearing as Isaac's ex-wife Jill, Meryl Streep probably never looked better on screen. But oh, those outfits and hair-do on Diane Keaton, those were the dictionary definition of dated if I had to come up with one. Not that any of the other players didn't evince the Seventies in their appearance, but Keaton's Mary certainly stood out.As for Woody Allen himself, he delivers the ultimate nebbish persona here that he made classically famous in his movies, stand-up routine and television guest spots. He really does come across as a funny guy, and charming enough in his own way, but it's tough to disassociate from one's own personal history. Try as I might, that dichotomy will always exist for me watching a Woody Allen picture.
grantss
Isaac (Woody Allen) is a twice-divorced 42-year old TV screenwriter, dating a 17-year old girl, Tracy (Mariel Hemingway). His best friend is Yale (Michael Murphy) who is married to Emily (Anne Byrne Hoffman) and is having an affair with Mary (Diane Keaton). Isaac finds himself drawn to Mary and when Yale and Mary split up, they start seeing each other. Things seem to be going swimmingly, but...Okay but not overly engaging, interesting or profound. Really just a romantic-drama, and nothing more. The clever humour which usually typifies Woody Allen movies is very few and far between and what there is generally doesn't quite have the some intelligence and zing as his usual stuff.So that just leaves it as a drama, and, as mentioned, it's just a romantic drama, so nothing too profound can come from it. There are some decent intrigues to sustain the movie, but that is about it.The 42-year-old-with-17-year-old was also a bit creepy. This aspect of the movie seemed to be explained well and the issue gotten past, but then the conclusion wrecks that. Very unsatisfactory ending, and undoes a lot of the progress that came before it.On the plus side, there were some good jabs at the pretentiousness of New York society. The cinematography is great too: filmed in black and white with some wonderful, loving, lingering shots of New York skylines and landmarks. Can't fault the performances either. Woody Allen does what he does best - playing himself. Diane Keaton is the pick of the bunch as the intelligent, over-analysing, knowingly-beautiful, self-obsessed Mary. Meryl Streep, in only her third feature film (her second was The Deer Hunter), is great in a supporting role.
simon-mcdonald
Nobody denies what a superb director Woody Allen is his status is that of America's premier director in my opinion and if your familiar with his work then surely you must agree with me if I said that Manhattan is his greatest work? There is only one word that can be used to describe this film and that is a true masterpiece both intellectually and visually. In my opinion this film shows Woody Allen at the absolute peak of his career, its shot in Black and White but yet in Widescreen format and it really worked well it makes for breathtaking cinematography. I must say that even Woody Allen's command of the situation and the dialogue are just really top notch if possible even better than his usual legendary performances. There is a real bitter-sweet heartfelt angst between each of the characters. I think this film is a real tribute from Woody Allen to the city he loved so much.
Francesca Randone
I'm nineteen years old and I've watched this film through the eyes of a girl of the 2015. I can honestly say that I've been very impressed by the detached and ingenious sarcasm with which Allen depicts a generation, his generation. In Manhattan I've seen first of all the portrait of a generation, the generation of those who lived their forties in Manhattan, the symbol of everything that could be achieved in the 80s. And the portrait depicted is not softened at all, since every single adult in this movie is a neurotic mess. There are adults afraid of cancer, adults that plan to write books they will never end, adults that put their life in the hands of LSD-addicted analysts, adults that talk about orgasms, adults devastated by dull, mediocre men imagined as "gods", adults that waver between homo, bi and heterosexuality, adults that pretend to be intellectuals and try to judge Mozart, Bergman and Scott Fitzgerald, adults whose relationships are stable just as the weather is, adults that act like they believe in the highest values but that in the end need a seventeen-year-old girl to find their balance. And those are the same adults that despise the generation brought up by the TV and the pill. This show of absurdities is well hosted by Isaac Davis, Woody Allen himself, that unprejudiced as always, hides all these paradoxical situations behind a good amount of irony. If I had to make a comparison with a more recent movie, I would say that what Allen did with his generation has been done by Tony Servillo with the current fifty-year-old Roman VIPs, in his latest work La Grande Bellezza. Irony, good acting and a good soundtrack always make a movie worth watching. And this movie can boast the best of everything.
AD
