Manhattan - Movie Review
PG
Comedy
Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep
Directed by Woody Allen
A sentimental, intellectual love sonnet to Woody Allen's favorite city in the world, this film is one of the very best of Allen's prolific body of work. It comes only two films after his Academy Award winning (and some would say best) film, "Annie Hall", and stars the same actress and love interest, Diane Keaton.
Woody is cast in the role of a writer who worries about aging, having just past the 40-year-old mark, and is having an affair with a much younger high school student, played by the lovely and extremely naturalistic Mariel Hemmingway. Add to this the fact that he is recently divorced from a wife who has now become a lesbian (played by Meryl Streep!), and you have the typical Allen character who is in the depths of despair, but also on the cusp or finding honest love and a deeper meaning to his life.
The style of the film is something a film lover will find lush and filled with eyeball candy (cinematography, all done in black and white, is shot by the legendary Gordon Willis). The sentimental, melancholy and oftentimes dramatic soundtrack is provided by the some of the most recognizable Gershwin tunes, including the main theme, "Rhapsody in Blue", which Gershwin himself said he wrote as an homage to New York City.
The performances by all involved as well as the sharp screenplay elevate this film to truly iconic status in the world of filmmaking. The film has a feeling of reverence for metropolitan living and the world at large, which many of Allen's later films don't quite seem to have, leaving his characters as centerpieces for the story, but still, somehow, much smaller than the overall story itself, which is about the romantic magnitude of "The Big Apple".
by Brian Nathan
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