12/13/10 - Manhattan

Manhattan (1979, 96 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079522/

Using a new Netflix account, a choice came down to Manhattan or Charade with Manhattan winning out on two criteria. First, it had Woody Allen as the director, and second it would probably be less serious than Charade. Let it be known that I was pushing for Charade.

The film follows Isaac (Woody Allen) as he weaves around between relationships in his life. He's living in New York City but he quits his job and is trying to write a book. As the movie moves along he goes from being with Tracy (Mariel Hemingway) to Mary (Diane Keaton) and then back to Tracy all after just going through a divorce with Jill (Meryl Streep). His friend Yale (Michael Murphy) is who he hangs out with the most during the movie.

I'd only seen Vicky Cristina Barcelona from Woody Allen before and that was only a bit ago. I get the impression that Woody Allen is one of the two masters of New York City cinema in the last fifty or so years. Martin Scorsese is great at seeing the seedy underbelly of the city and showing all the terrible things that go on that most people ignore on a daily basis. Woody Allen is the romantic comedy expert that makes his movies even better by placing them in the iconic town. As Vicky Cristina Barcelona only takes place in Spain, this would be my first look at this part of Allen's career.

Sadly, I'll leave not feeling overly impressed. The thing that bothered me the most is that the movie just seemed to meander around with no sense of purpose. Allen plays a funny and hilarious Isaac and carries the movie superbly from scene to scene. It's just that I never really cared where stuff was going. It seemed pretty obvious from the opening couple scenes that Isaac would move from Tracy to Mary and then as the movie progressed further it seemed obvious he would move back again. Other people like Yale were okay in secondary roles but I felt like the movie weaved around with its focus and that it never fully characterized any one person too much besides Isaac. I mean, I never really got to know someone like Tracy except in about two scenes. Sure, she's a little girl that doesn't fully understand what love is but there's more to her than this flat character. A complete lack of flat characters was something for which I praised Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Not long in, Tracy abandons the movie for plot reasons and is only seen again at the very end. Now we move on to Mary but the same problem plagues her. She's independent and smart and all that but there's more to her than this and these sides are never seen. Isaac plods along with Allen displaying the same charm that he's had with the character from the beginning. Tertiary characters like Jilly end up almost being completely pointless and the subplots that deal with them end up being essentially worthless to the whole scheme of things.

One thing I liked about Manhattan was the frequent use of long takes. As I've said time and time again, I think these work really well. Here, they don't add tension like they do in most dramas nor do they just make for a jaw dropping rush of awesome like they do in action movies. Here, they just seem to work to really highlight the characters. Sadly, as I've alluded to above, they don't seem to do that much in the long run. There's multiple long takes involving Isaac and because of this we see much of his character. But for these other characters like Tracy or Mary they're really not involved in but one or maybe two long takes and this seems to be when all the character development for Manhattan comes out. I guess there ends up being two possible solutions to what I'm consistently claiming is a negative of Manhattan: 1) have more character development in the scenes that aren't long takes; or 2) involve Tracy or Mary in more of those long take scenes. Really, it might seem like I'm nitpicking at something minor but I feel like character development (of more than one character) is essential for a romantic comedy.

The last thing is that Manhattan really captures the feel of New York City. There's the hustle and bustle lifestyle which is present. The biggest thing though is probably when Yale buys a Porsche while living in Manhattan. It's partly humorous when this happens but it also displays a sense of frivolity. I guess this is one of the few examples where a character's action also gives them some character development and it works. And finally there's the music choices for the movie. They are very reminiscent of what I think when I think of New York, a somewhat grandiose big music feel and the choices for between the scenes really capture that vibe. It's possible these tunes are Gershwin (who I think of as the stereotype of New York City music) but I can't be sure.

Overall, I gave this film a 5/10. Manhattan failed to really impress me. With lack of character development outside Allen's Isaac I was left bored and apathetic toward most everyone in the movie. There were bright spots such as the cool long takes and the great music choices but on the whole the movie left me unimpressed. I'll still check out more Woody Allen though, since I got glimpses at an amazing director really using New York City to his advantage in crafting a great story.