Manhattan

"3.5 stars out of 4"

Writing another review was on my mind for the past few days, but aside from being too busy to watch a movie, I was terrified of the idea of failing at what I am trying to do. But then I thought, I wouldn't know what can happen if I don't even try. That's the whole point of "trying"- duh!

Anyway, I thought this time I am definitely going to write about one of Woody Allen's movies. I had seen many of his movies before, but for the past couple of weeks I had started watching his movies continuously. He has become one of my all time favorite film makers (the other ones being Tim Burton and Robert Zemeckis to name a few...just so you know!). As far as I can remember, I have watched "Hannah and her sisters", "Mighty Aphrodite" and "Everything you always wanted to know about sex..." in the past few weeks. I have loved all of them but by far, among these few, Manhattan has become my favorite.

Allen has this impeccable sense of humor. His films are never one of those haha movies where the jokes are right out there and you just have to laugh automatically. You know what I mean?!  I want to call his style, "suspense comedy"! I don't know if there is such thing out there but this is what I think his genre is! He starts a line...it builds up...and suddenly he comes to the point that he wanted to get to, and at that point I burst into laughter and I'm saying "well done sir, you did it again!"

As far as I know, he has written all the scripts that he's directed himself and no wonder he has been nominated for an Oscar for writing (original screenplay), a record 15 times!

One of the other things that you can see in his movies that I like is that he usually takes one long shot where there's a dialog going on between two people, even if they are not in the shot, it doesn't cut to a close-up like other movies do, and this makes me at least, sink more into the scene.

The movie starts with "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin. I remember about ten years ago, my brother had told me that this song had come to Gershwin when he was on a train and was inspired by the movements of the train! I think it is the same reason why Woody Allen has used it in this movie...to show the dynamic of New York city.

(A quick trivia! I don't know if you already know this but Allen has almost never used an original score for his movies. All the songs used are from his own collection and I think many of his movies must have been inspired by the songs. Take "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" for example. There is this funny song whenever they are hypnotized in the movie, that I think has helped in the making of the movie. Sorry I don't know the name of the song!")

Back to the movie. It is one of those movies that everyone should watch. The movie starts with the song that I mentioned and Allen's voice praising his beloved city as his character is writing a book in the movie. He is looking for a good line to describe what the city is like and the line he decides to go with at the end is like this "He was as tough and as romantic as the city he loved. Behind his black rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat - oh, I love this!" You see what I mean by suspense comedy?! A joke that is repeated in almost all of his movies that his character describes himself the very opposite of the way we see him.

The story line is about the life of two friends (one of them being Allen himself) who live in Manhattan and are stuck in moral situations. And probably what happens is because of the city and Manhattan and the way people have become (or had become back then) that was different from the rest of the country, as Diane Keaton's character reminds us a few times "I am from Philadelphia. We don't have these things back there!". To show you a few of these things that could've only happened in Manhattan: his ex-wife had become a lesbian; a topic that is even controversial now, let alone 30 years ago! And how brave he must have been to include a topic like this in his movie (of course, this reminds me of "Some Like it Hot" where at the end of movie there is a cautious hint about homosexuality).

Allen's character, who is 40 years old, is dating a 17-year-old girl. Again, something that usually you could only see in Manhattan. And it is ironic how he says in the movie that the girl is too young for him but in real life a few years after making this movie he married one of Mia Farrow's adopted children and his own step-daughter, who's 35 years his junior! But let's not get gossip-y right now. Let me say this before getting away from this issue. Although he seems to have done the wrong thing and I can't find a way to justify his act, but I think you can never judge a person, because you don't know what they have been through. I had mentioned this in my past posts as well (how very preach-y of me!).

And one of the other things that I liked about this movie was the way his character meets Diane Keaton's character. It happens in real life, too...you are not off to a good start, you disagree on everything with that person, but somehow you get attracted to them! It's one of the big mysteries of the universe!

One of the funniest things in this movie is Keaton's attraction to men and how she describes them. You'll have to see it to know what I mean and I don't wanna spoil it for you.

Allen's movies are real-life like and never boring (except for "Everyone says I love you" which was also OK compared to many movies). And one thing that I think is the best thing about his movies is that they never end the way you expected. Never a cliche...always a surprise.

Even some of his movies that haven't been praised by critics and even criticized harshly by many of them, such as Jade Scorpion and Scoop, are really entertaining and always surprise you at the end.