Manhattan is Woody Allen’s more serious follow-up to Annie Hall. While Annie Hall was a mix of Allen’s earlier slapstick and later serious work, Manhattan is a straight rom-com. It is a very grounded film.
The Set-Up
Allen plays Isaac, a TV writer living in Manhattan who aspires to be a novelist. He is dating Tracy (Mariel Hemingway) a 17-year old high school student. He is best friends with Yale (Michael Murphy), a college professor married to Emily (Anne Byrne Hoffman). Yale is having an affair with Mary (Diane Keaton) , a pretty and intelligent but emotionally troubled journalist.
Isaac quits his job after getting fed up with the quality of the Saturday Night Live-like show he works on One day, Tracy and Isaac are at the Museum of Modern Art and bump into Yale and Mary. What follows is a series of break-ups, new couplings, getting- back-togethers, and more breakups. Finally at the end Isaac realizes which person he belongs with.
But the ending isn’t a sappy romantic ending. It is left very ambiguous.
Why It’s Great
There’s not much I can say that hasn’t already been said by better critics. Like in Roger Ebert’s Great Movies entry.
New York City is brought alive by the Gershwin score and the black and white cinematography by the legendary Gordon Willis. They also make the movie feel timeless instead of dated.
This is Allen’s most honest romance. He’s not hiding behind jokes or artifice. When the characters in this movie break-up they react like real people.
Allen isn’t afraid to criticize his various personas and recurring themes in this work. There are no perfect characters and none are given a pass. But none are villainized either.
The ending is so real and immediate. Every time I watch this movie I think about it and I can never decide what happens next. When I was younger I felt one way, now that I’m older I feel different. But it will change again next time I watch it.
Allen is still making movies about romantic entanglements, but this is the best one he ever made. If you want a great movie that’s an honest look at romance you should watch this. But if you want something lighter or you don’t like Woody Allen don’t watch this movie. If you’re one of those people who can’t watch black and white movies, watch this movie. You’ll see how poetic black and white can be.