All of the oddities and quirks of Woody Allen's work can't distract the fact that at its core what Allen creates is honest, poignant and often it seems effortless. Before he got bogged down with being the great Woody Allen he wrote and directed from the heart. "Manhattan", very much a continuation of his masterpiece, "Annie Hall", could very easily be an autobiographical piece judging from how earnestly it presents the conflicts of a man at a crossroad of life.
Directing himself once again in the lead role, Allen plays Issac, a forty-something writer who has quit his job, lost his wife to another woman, and has turned to dating a 17-year-old girl named Tracy (Oscar nominee Mariel Hemingway). Intellectually he knows it's a bit smarmy (possibly more than a bit) to be dating a girl less than half his age, but Tracy is beautiful and innocent, unlike his icy ex, Jill (Meryl Streep). Directionless, he turns to easy sex with a pretty young thing, and living vicariously through her, in a way.
Isaac soon falls for another, however, the mistress of his best friend. Diane Keaton is Mary, whom Isaac initially describes as a pseudo-intellectual, and indeed she is. Allen's work is often self-aware, and it's all too clear from his films, even dating to his recent "Midnight in Paris" that he can't stand those who flaunt their smarts. I suppose you could argue that he fell into that trap himself in his later life, but I would have to say that by then he deserved it. Here, though, it is simply wit, and razor sharp at that. But that's a digression. Isaac and Mary begin dating, but it becomes clear that they two of them are too afraid of commitment to be true to one another. We watch as they try to navigate through each of their considerable insecurities toward happiness.
This is a great movie in many respects. I found it a bit hard to identify with as I am only 21 and have never had a relationship that could have become love. I appreciated its ideas, though. This is a story about a collection of people who look for love in the wrong places, find it in spite of themselves and then choose to let it go. In many ways it is slightly devastating because all of them could be happy if they so chose, but this is a film by Allen, for Allen, and it doesn't seem to me that he believed in love for himself when he wrote the screenplay.
What we watch is set in front of a beautiful New York City backdrop. He titled the film after the great city for a reason, and that is because the true mistress is Manhattan herself. Shot in glorious black-and-white it references a time when the city should have always been filled with cigarette smoke and jazz. As uncertain as he is with love, Isaac also laments the loss of the values of a dying city. It is changing and not for the better. Isaac turns to the wrong women the same way the city turned to vice and garbage. How do we still find the beauty in a place like that?
This is a sweet and affecting film, and certainly one of his best. The laughs come easy and so do the tears. It's romantic without being sickly sweet, and it also takes the time to flirt with profundity. In the end--despite it being written, directed and starring Allen--it is hopeful about love. It has faith in the human capacity to heal and move on. It also acknowledges that we are fallible beings, but sometimes our instincts should not be ignored. It handles emotions with ups and downs, but fortunately it closes on a beautiful high.
4/4
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