Grimossfer
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
Aubrey Hackett
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Bessie Smyth
Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
classicsoncall
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.
mhbjc
Best review of this movie called it "crime dressed like art". Don't give in to feeding Woody's neuroses.
thomasglenn-97385
Very witty Woody Allen style movie. Enjoyed it very much. BUT................It was totally unnecessary to have this quirky 42 year old man dating a 17 year old. BTW..Mariel Hemingway was the weakest performer in the movie and the "love" connection was not believable. BUT......why not make her 21 or 22 and finishing college, NOT HIGH SCHOOL !!! You would still have Woody feeling guilty about the age difference, while not coming off as a near child molester !!!Completely disregarding his later relationship with his step-daughter, this one thing pretty much ruined a humorous, witty, if off beat story of several neurotic, warped people. Dating a 17 year old makes Woody a very unsympathetic character.....otherwise, the movie is an 8 out of 10)
Francesca Randone
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.
