Manhattan (1979)

Simply Perfect

Absolutely the worst movie.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This movie depicts a dark, somber, chilling New York City, a place in which light is starkly offset by shadows. This sets the mood for the story about a man who is wants happiness but fails to find it. Nothing he does brings him joy. He hates his job, gest involved in hopelessly morbid relationships, deceives himself into believing that his so-called friends actually care about him, and is incapable of showing real anger. He feels rage but cannot let it out. Instead he directs his rage against himself by repeatedly putting himself in social situations in which he allows others to humiliate him. Now, what makes this movie so wacky is that it is billed as a comedy. This movie is supposed to be funny, clever, witty and arguably Woody Allen's best movie. This dark movie is anything but funny. The main character, Isaac, played by Allen, is suffering. Isaac is so lacking in self-esteem and so determined to punish himself for wanting to be happy that he gets involved with a high school girl. And the moment the girl indicates she cares for him, he pushes her away. Only belatedly does he realize what he has done, but by that time it is too late. he has lost her. He suffers another rejection from a woman who is the mistress of his married best friend. Isaac deludes himself into believing that this woman, who is fickle and emotionally flighty, cares about him. When he shows that he cares about her, she dumps him. She is utterly incapable of commitment. But the worst blow to Isaac's already shredded ego occurs when he is forced to realize that his best friend, Yale, the one person who Isaac believes really cares about him as a human being, and who Isaac idolizes, is a self-centered narcissist who uses people. And remember: this is supposed to be a comedy. Where is Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello when we need them? The thing about this movie that makes it so unique is that it attempts to present self-loathing as a form of humor. One cannot help but feel sympathy for Isaac who really deserves better treatment. But to call this comedy is a bit of a stretch.

I'm always a bit conflicted watching a Woody Allen movie. The guy can be brilliant, but always in the back of my mind is the way he betrayed a long time relationship with Mia Farrow by taking up with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn. There was also the scandal revolving around adopted son Dylan Farrow, all of which makes me sour on Allen as a human being. It appears that in his early directed films, he might have offered some prophetic insight toward his behavior. For example, in "Bananas" there's a scene at a magazine stand where he's looking at a girlie mag, and he says to a bystander that he's doing a study on perversion and child molesting. Or take "Hannah and Her Sisters" where Allen's character blows off child molesting by saying that 'half the country is doing it'. So here, in "Manhattan", he's actually cavorting with a seventeen year old girlfriend portrayed by Mariel Hemingway, who oddly, turns out to be the most mature person out of all of Isaac's (Allen) acquaintances by the time the movie is over.Cinematically, I liked the film for it's crisp black and white portrayal of New York City, especially the night time scenes of distant cityscapes and beautifully lit street venues. As is often found in Allen's scripts, the characters deliver many of the nuances of love and life's miseries along with it's unintended consequences. Appearing as Isaac's ex-wife Jill, Meryl Streep probably never looked better on screen. But oh, those outfits and hair-do on Diane Keaton, those were the dictionary definition of dated if I had to come up with one. Not that any of the other players didn't evince the Seventies in their appearance, but Keaton's Mary certainly stood out.As for Woody Allen himself, he delivers the ultimate nebbish persona here that he made classically famous in his movies, stand-up routine and television guest spots. He really does come across as a funny guy, and charming enough in his own way, but it's tough to disassociate from one's own personal history. Try as I might, that dichotomy will always exist for me watching a Woody Allen picture.

The Three Acts:The initial tableaux: The film features some fine shooting in black and white. Isaac, 42, has drinks with his long time friend Yale, Yale's wife Emily, and Tracey, his current girlfriend, who is 17 (yikes). Isaac's ex Jill, who left him for another woman, is writing a tell-all book about their marriage. Isaac decides to quit his well-paying job to write a book.Delineation of conflicts: Isaac is not thrilled with Jill's book, but she is adamant about getting it published. Yale is having an affair with Mary, while Emily seeks the deeper commitment of children. Yale puts her off. Tracy would like Isaac to be happy, which is not ever going to be an easy thing. Isaac would like Tracy to have a normal happy youth; Tracy would like some commitment from Isaac. Isaac would like to be with his son more, but his obsession with intellect would probably never allow that. The triangle of Yale, Mary, and Isaac takes a number of turns, and has repercussions.Resolution: The personal connections move forward, some for better, some for the worse. Yep, that is about it, but it's well done.

I'm nineteen years old and I've watched this film through the eyes of a girl of the 2015. I can honestly say that I've been very impressed by the detached and ingenious sarcasm with which Allen depicts a generation, his generation. In Manhattan I've seen first of all the portrait of a generation, the generation of those who lived their forties in Manhattan, the symbol of everything that could be achieved in the 80s. And the portrait depicted is not softened at all, since every single adult in this movie is a neurotic mess. There are adults afraid of cancer, adults that plan to write books they will never end, adults that put their life in the hands of LSD-addicted analysts, adults that talk about orgasms, adults devastated by dull, mediocre men imagined as "gods", adults that waver between homo, bi and heterosexuality, adults that pretend to be intellectuals and try to judge Mozart, Bergman and Scott Fitzgerald, adults whose relationships are stable just as the weather is, adults that act like they believe in the highest values but that in the end need a seventeen-year-old girl to find their balance. And those are the same adults that despise the generation brought up by the TV and the pill. This show of absurdities is well hosted by Isaac Davis, Woody Allen himself, that unprejudiced as always, hides all these paradoxical situations behind a good amount of irony. If I had to make a comparison with a more recent movie, I would say that what Allen did with his generation has been done by Tony Servillo with the current fifty-year-old Roman VIPs, in his latest work La Grande Bellezza. Irony, good acting and a good soundtrack always make a movie worth watching. And this movie can boast the best of everything.