Manhattan

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Manhattan

92% Liked It
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Manhattan

Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Michael Murphy, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep

A middle-aged TV writer, living in Manhattan, finds himself torn between relationships with a teenage girl who idolizes him, a thirtysomething woman who shares his intellectual passions, and an ex-wif...( read more  read more... )e who left him for another woman.

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Manhattan Recent Reviews
  • SirPant
    September 29, 2009
    SirPant
    I have to confess, I?m not the world?s biggest Woody Allen fan but this film I like.
  • PvtCaboose91
    May 5, 2009
    PvtCaboose91
    "Chapter One. He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. Beneath his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat. I love this. New York was his town, and it always would be..."


    Widely regarded as one of Woody Allen's best films, Manhat

    ...( read more)tan is an endearing romantic comedy that takes a picturesque black & white tour of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Filmed in 1979, this aesthetically gorgeous picture is often deemed a follow-up to Woody's Annie Hall from 1977. Manhattan makes no attempt to eschew the proverbial Woody Allen trademarks. It's autobiographical by nature, and was even named after the city Woody so passionately (and frequently) commits to celluloid. This particular film is a quantum leap in regards to style, craft and maturity of the subject matter. From a decidedly basic story, the gifted Woody Allen has produced an extraordinarily mature, honest and funny motion picture.


    The heart of the story concerns Isaac Davis (Allen). He's a neurotic 42-year-old in the midst of a mid-life crisis: he hates his job as a writer, he's dating a seventeen-year-old schoolgirl named Tracy (Hemingway) who's in love with him, and he's divorced. To make matters worse, his now-lesbian ex-wife (Streep) is currently penning a devastatingly personal "tell all" novel about their marriage and eventual break-up.

    Isaac finds no pleasure or satisfaction in writing pure junk for a television program for a paycheck, and instead aspires to write the great New York novel. In order to get serious about his novel, Isaac quits his job.

    Isaac's best friend Yale (Murphy) is happily married, but is nevertheless having an affair with a woman named Mary (Keaton). Gradually, Isaac falls in love with Yale's mistress. But Isaac is still troubled by his relationship with the youthful Tracy. She's madly in love with him and wishes to take their relationship to the next level...Isaac, however, does not love Tracy in return. Instead he opts to break off the relationship and pursue Mary instead.


    "She's 17. I'm 42 and she's 17. I'm older than her father, can you believe that? I'm dating a girl, wherein, I can beat up her father."


    Logically enough, the city of Manhattan functions as a central character - probably as crucial as the characters navigating its streets. In various respects, Manhattan is Woody Allen's classic love-hate letter to the city of his soul. Collaborating with master cinematographer Gordon Willis, Woody used black and white photography for the first time. In addition to this, the film was shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Black and white was employed to give a texture and polish to the city, and the results are simply intoxicating. In expanding the aspect ratio, a greater level of density was built to give a deeper feeling of detail and scope to Woody's vision. Willis' photography surpasses postcard pretty...the essence of the city has been marvellously encapsulated in a way no-one had ever accomplished before. Manhattan is also Woody Allen's most personal film. The absence of colour imagery reflects Isaac's disillusion with both his career and the clique of friends surrounding him. All are writers - he's a writer for TV, his former wife is writing a feminist tract on their marriage, Yale is working on a biography of Eugene O'Neill, and Mary is a both a critic and a columnist. Furthermore, conversations are interspersed with allusions to creative artists, from Strindberg and Kafka to Ingmar Bergman, Fellini and Groucho Marx.


    Over the decades, New York City has transformed into a different city altogether. Woody Allen's Manhattan is a city of subtle beauty. It is also a place of marvellous intellectual incentive, and serenity between the frantic traffic. It's refreshing to see the city sans mobile phones, computers and, more or less, electronics in general. Woody and Willis capture the simple silence of a city before the advent of advanced technology - it's all the more striking as a window to a prior generation and as a remarkably poignant snapshot of life in the 1970s for typical New Yorkers.


    Party Guest: "I finally had an orgasm, and my doctor said it was the wrong kind."

    Isaac: "You had the wrong kind? I've never had the wrong kind, ever. My worst one was right on the money."


    Allen generates wonderful comedy through his witty dialogue. Never are laughs blatant or contrived - there is no slapstick, for example. All the laugh-out-loud dialogue is natural, never forced. Manhattan is frequently marred, however, by Woody Allen's constant ravings. Although beautifully photographed, the film also occasionally lacks a vital spark to energise the dialogue and sustain a viewer's interest. Despite a runtime of merely 95 minutes, the film needed to be tighter. As Woody rambles unremittingly, the actor at times fails to engage.


    "My ex-wife left me for another woman."


    In essence, Woody's character of Isaac Davis is a more mature, fleshed-out version of Alvy Singer from Annie Hall. It's amazing how the filmmaker and star manages to successfully pull off variations of his typical screen persona. Throughout his career, Woody Allen has performed as Woody Allen in spades. He's usually appetising, but at other times he needs to learn restraint during his rambles.

    Diane Keaton plays the somewhat unpleasant, possibly egotistic object of Woody's infatuations - i.e. the same type of role she always plays in a Woody Allen picture. Suitably, this is acting by numbers for Diane. Mariel Hemingway copped an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress as the 17-year-old love interest. The naivety and immaturity of her performance conveys the uncertainty inherent in this type of relationship. The anguish she endures as Isaac dumps her, and the bewilderment she experiences when he randomly returns to her is totally honest and natural. Mariel's performance is top-notch, and it rings with such wonderful truth. Her performance is endowed with charm and grace.

    In supporting roles, a young Meryl Streep features as Isaac's lesbian ex-wife. She fuses the right tone of antagonism with just the right sense of humour, allowing her to seem much more than the standard, two-dimensional ex-wife bitch. Michael Murphy is on hand as Yale: Isaac's best friend, and straight man to Isaac's jokes.


    If ever there was a filmmaker whose work divided opinions so rigorously, it'd be Woody Allen. Various audiences find it challenging to "get into" Woody's films. After all, he plays the same character - basically himself - all the time: Jewish liberal neurotic with narcissistic overtones. If you're irritated by his usual mannerisms, you'll most likely roll your eyes at his frequent casting of beautiful young starlets as his love interest. Unsurprisingly, the critics chose to chastise Allen for selecting a 17 year-old blonde as his Soul Mate for this picture. But the young lady epitomises the vigour and excitement that Isaac had forgotten existed within Manhattan. This is definitely one of Woody's most interesting films.


    When Woody Allen viewed the rough cut of Manhattan, he told producers Jack Rollins and Charles H. Joffe to destroy every frame - and if they did, he'd direct another film for United Artists for free. It may have been a critical and commercial success, but Manhattan is to date Woody's least favourite film from his extensive oeuvre. Be that as it may, this film is both tremendously funny and ultimately very poignant. New York City looks beautiful when captured by Gordon Willis' lens, and it's gift-wrapped with a bow courtesy of the gorgeous music of George Gershwin. The writing is sharp and perceptive, with all of the performances uniformly on the mark. For the first-time Woody Allen viewer, Manhattan is an ideal place to start. His strengths are on ample display, with very few of his excesses.


    "I feel like we're in a Noel Coward play. Someone should be making martinis."
  • her69eyes
    December 7, 2008
    her69eyes
    An overly neurotic Jew in New York is troubled by the women in his life. This could be on the back of the box of plenty of Allen's films - his characters are all very similar, the settings are similar, and even a lot of the same themes are rehashed. So what is it that makes Allen...( read more) the filmmaker he is, and why is "Manhattan" considered far and above his best film by fans and critics alike? As many have pointed out, this is a close cousin to "Annie Hall", and almost identical to someone not giving each film their undivided attention. However, due to "Manhattan"'s extraordinary range of legitimate human depth and wonderful cinematography by Gordon Willis, it truly stands on it's own as one of Allen's best.

    "Manhattan", set in 1979, opens with a montage of the city. Many of these images are familiar in some of Allen's other work, however the black and white cinematography gives the picture a feeling of timelessness. While his other films feel very true and the cinematography is kept simple, this is the most surrealistic Manhattan that Allen has created. Although neither Gordon Willis or Woody Allen blatantly says "look at me" with masturbatory details, it's subtle touches are always plentiful inbetween the truly spectacular sequences, such as the ones at the Hayden Planetarium or sitting by the river.

    Issac (Woody Allen) is immediately identifiable as a Woody Allen character - he's twice divorced, struggles with work as a completely neurotic television writer (there's a funny scene where he complains his comedy show isn't funny enough), and although he's financially stable he's enormously unhappy. His current love interest is a 17-year-old named Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), and he is about 25 years her elder. Tracy is absolutely in love with him and she see's a bright future between them, while Issac certainly doesn't. This relationship doesn't seem to bother his friends at all, which was one small criticism I had with the film. Tracy, however, is a wonderful character, as although she is far and away the youngest in the film, she's the most confident and sure of herself.

    Issac's best friend is Yale (Michael Murphy), who would seem to be happily married had it not been for the affair he's having with Mary (Diane Keaton). He hates himself for cheating on his wife, and Mary also doesn't feel comfortable in the "homewrecker" position. When Issac and Mary meet, Issac is infuriated with her. She boastfully puts down every one of Allen's artistic interests, especially Allen's real-life idol Ingmar Bergman. The two seem completely incompatible, however, that initial disdain eventually turns to friendship and even love. Issac selfishly tells Tracy he's found another woman he loves, which isn't entirely true, and in the end of the film we see how much he regrets it.

    What is especially remarkable about "Manhattan" is the fact that Issac doesn't come off as a total creep. I'm sure all of us would have reservations about a 42-year-old man dating a high school senior, however their relationship seems to be more intellectual than physical (however, sex is mentioned in passing). What makes this couple so, well, un-creepy, is solely thanks to Mariel Hemingway. She's the most mature in the film, and therefore we eventually see her as wiser than Issac himself. By the end of the film, the only child in the film ends up being Issac.

    Although "Manhattan" is a comedy, and a very funny one at that, it's really remarkably depressing. I really wasn't a huge fan of Allen's most blatant drama, "Interiors", however this one certainly is able to get across similar hopelessness in an unpretentious way. Issac's character is completely selfish, and we know that'll eventually lead to his downfall. Mary, who seems to be the shining star who has entered Issac's life, disappears by the end of the film. The final thing we see is essentially Issac doing his best to crawl back to Tracy. In this final moment of realization, it truly makes Issac's journey come to a clear end and it's a brilliant ending to the film.

    I didn't like this as much as "Husbands and Wives" or "Hannah and Her Sisters", but I still very much enjoyed it.
  • Cinema101
    October 20, 2008
    Cinema101
    10/10

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    Required viewing for anyone who loves pure cinema, and by this I mean stunning and beautiful camera work, as well a...( read more)s any Antonioni fan as this could easily be added to his alienation trilogy as the series' comedic fourth act. What Allen says about modern relationships proves not only true and provocative but also ingeniously simultaneously tragic, heartwarming, and hilarious.

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    The cinematography could very well be the best I've ever seen, particularly for a film of its genre, with incredibly configured metaphorical juxtapositions. Coupled with an electrifying Gershwin score, which at first I thought a bit "too much" but later found essential in ways I never thought possible, this film is rightfully hailed as Allen's crowning achievement and has easily, instantly become one of my favorite films. A film that dares to criticize those who critique, dilettantes who live up to other's standards of what high standards ought to be, phonies who wear masks as often (if not more) than those "below" them intellectually. For this, Allen is a saint and responsible for some of the truest and most original cinema ever produced.
  • DragonEyeMorrison
    August 15, 2008
    DragonEyeMorrison
    Woody before going senile.
  • filmfanatic1982
    December 20, 2009
    filmfanatic1982
    I fell in love with this movie upon my first viewing.
  • Phonex
    November 21, 2009
    Phonex
    http://www.woodyallen.com/

    Out of this everyday material Allen has crafted a genuinely romantic, optimistic and totally enjoyable piece of iconic cinema that also happens to be pretty much grounded in reality. Most impressively he actually manages to both restrain his darker s...( read more)ide and immerse the film in humour without resorting to stand-up. To complete the film he's chosen the most perfect Gershwin score chosen beautifully with Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and Strike Up the Band ensuring only the stoniest hearted soul could be left unmoved. Apparently Woody Allen hated his work in this film and tried to block it's release. Maybe it's because he actually plays a complex and often unlikeably bitter quasi-paedophile, maybe he's just a lousy judge of his own films, either way thank goodness he failed. There may be one or two dodgy moments (particularly his sparring with Yale) but Manhattan is so flawless a film it's more than forgivable.
  • mmfz
    October 23, 2009
    mmfz
    I liked the way he liked his city =]
  • Basht
    October 14, 2009
    Basht
    did not like this at all
  • HarleenQuinzel
    September 29, 2009
    HarleenQuinzel
    There's a lot of grief about this movie being "Annie Hall 2", and where I can see where the similarities are being drawn, as I'm sure everyone can, it doesn't change the fact that this is an exceptional movie. Visually, Manhattan is beautiful to look at -- aided in part by the bl...( read more)ack-and-white presentation. As always with Allen's films the writing is top notch, and there are few things more likeable or memorable in the movie than Allen himself. I love the guy. And I love Manhattan.
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