harbingerofapocalypse
Even setting aside Allen's personal history that inescapably boosts the creep factor of one of the central relationships, this movie is filled with utterly unlikeable people doing immoral things. Supposedly a love letter to the titular city, the only thing that rises even to admirability is the cinematography. Except for the romanticizing of the city via the look of the film, there is zero romance to any of these relationships. I will never be able to suspend disbelief at the idea, in many of Allen's films where he plays the main character, that he's somehow such an attractive Casanova that he gets himself into these predicaments to begin with. His characters are such annoying, whiny-voiced trolls. The humor is low-key, nothing laugh-out-loud funny, but a few chuckles. It's the kind of movie pseudo-intellectuals write and give glowing reviews of, but for the rest of us it's just a big shrug. If these are the types of people that are typical of Manhattanites, then screw Manhattan, and definitely this movie.
rogerdarlington
Any compilation of classic films has to include at least one Woodly Allen movie and this one - which he directed and co-wrote and in which he appears in almost every scene - is one of his best works in a career spanning more than six decades and embracing more than 60 films. Like so many early Allen movies, this is located exclusively in central New York and indeed is a veritable homage to his home town being shot in black and white with a soundtrack from George Gershwin. Again like so many early Allen movies, the core of the narrative is the neuroses of the central character - essentially Allen himself - as explored through his relationships with women.In "Manhattan", Isaac is a 42-year-old, twice-divorced, television comedy writer trying to make sense of relationships with his lesbian ex-wife, played by Meryl Streep with very long blonde hair, his 17 year old girlfriend, played quietly by Mariel Hemingway with her distinctive cheekbones and eyebrows, and his best friend's lover, played by big-haired klutzy Diane Keaton (Allen's partner shortly before the making of the film). Looking back at the movie almost 40 years after it was made, one notes how little other high-profile work Hemingway did, how brilliant and long-lasting a career Streep has had, and how the large age gap between Allen's character and his girlfriend seems to anticipate his subsequent relationship with Soon-Yi Previn where there is a 35 year difference.Perhaps, above all, one enjoys and remembers "Manhattan" because of the witty and hilarious script - one of Allen's finest. Who else would write lines like this? "No, I didn't read the piece on China's faceless masses, I was, I was checking out the lingerie ads." Or this? "I dunno, I was just thinking. There must be something wrong with me, because I've never had a relationship with a woman that's lasted longer than the one between Hitler and Eva Braun."
sharky_55
Midnight In Paris takes its opening from Manhattan, and both are loving odes to great cities, but here additionally we have the smooth jazz saxophone of Gershin, and the voice-over of a certain neurotic trying to find the perfect opening lines to his book. There are some truths and some lies. The biggest truth is Isaac's love for the city, something that even passing time cannot erode - he intends to immortalise it in Willis' stunning black and white photography that captures a distant past, a nostalgic version of the skyscrapers, the ferries, the butcheries, the snowy parks, and of course the iconic shot of the Queensboro Bridge twinkling and silhouetting what seems to be a lovestruck pair. And then he is exaggerating in some instances; he maintains that he and will still have the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat even in his 70s, and remarks if there is anyone that he models himself after it is god. However when it comes time to break up with the 17 year-old Tracy, he subtly deflects the doe-eyed interrogation of love into an act for her own good - now he is 42, miserable, and his hair is falling out. He is self-righteous, but not on the same level of pretentiousness as Yale or Mary, who pride themselves in their 'Academy of Overrated' and disparage great artists from all areas. Watch how they and Isaac spar - well not spar, they laugh and snicker, while Isaac adamantly refuses their every suggestion. But one line from his ex-wife's memoir of their disastrous marriage seems to suggest he is not so different (and the group laugh out loud at this reading, but as ElMaruecan82 points out, Tracy would never have done so, and I agree); as much as he seems to despise these pseudo-intellectual New Yorkers, he chases eagerly after one and only succeeds in doing so on account of being one himself. He is disillusioned with his successful comedy show, so he quits without really thinking just how much of a downgrade he will have to suffer in his lifestyle - what is more important, his integrity, or the colour of his tap water? He complains at length about it, and in the next scene the cameras tracks him as he walks over to hand a crystal clear glass of water to Mary, but we already knew that it was her. He adjusts his personality depending on who he is trying to woo. He is also hypocritical. Watch how two grown men argue and bicker over a grown women like she is a toy. Yale spits out that he saw her first. Isaac is clearly bitter about being cheated on despite doing the same to Tracy. Yale childishly retaliates later and lies to his wife, solely pushing the blame on his dear friend. Earlier, they unexpectedly bump into Mary's ex-husband, and Isaac is pushed swiftly out of the frame, but it matters not, because Wallace Shawn as Jeremiah is his spitting image, middle-aged, balding, short (it's even suggested he used to be overweight). Isaac marvels that a man that looks like that could ever be a dominating, devastating sexual partner - but of course, he's assigned these roles to himself.Mariel Hemingway is Tracy, the 17 year old girlfriend, and hers is perhaps the best performance of them of all, quiet, assured, straight faced. It is a testament to her ability that I find myself with troubling thoughts, never once wondering about her attraction to the older Isaac, but questioning over and over how he managed to get her. This is the mindset of Isaac, who manages to convince himself and her that she is youthful beyond her pretty face, that she is inexperienced and precocious, that she has many lovers ahead, and that she does not yet know what love is. In short, that she is uncorrupted. Watch his little sly smile as Tracy answers "I go to high school", clearly out of her element, and he loves this about her. He is babying her, but indulging in it at the same time. Willis frames the two close yet far apart in the stylish apartment, distant, as he once again lectures her on how to approach this relationship that seems a dying cause. She makes a joke about how little he thinks of her knowledge of the arts, and we cut away before he can respond, but we know it is a dismissive one. They take a horse drawn carriage through the glittering nightime skyline, and Isaac dubs the experience corny, saying he's done it all before as a kid, but deep down he treasures this little memory, and thinks himself lucky to be able to do it again with such a beautiful girl. He finally comes to his senses in the final scene. Once again we start with a voice-over, which quickly turns into something more immediate and genuine - he is not attempting to wittily open his biography, but quietly recording himself musing over life's wonders. Music (most of all Gershin, who serenades throughout), cinema, good food, and then he fixates on Tracy's face. He runs her down, perhaps one of the first instances of this romantic comedy type confession. But here, although it is sincere (the most he has been the entire movie), it is also selfish, and he is sabotaging all his previous arguments and insistence on her naivety and youthfulness and boundless opportunities, but if he can have her again, it does not matter. He pleads for her to not get corrupted, while she insists it is just a few months. Who is the kid here?
