Manhattan

Despite its name, Woody Allen's "Manhattan" isn't just a love letter to the city he holds so dear. "Manhattan" is a love letter to love, why we love being in love, why we hate it, why we keep doing it. It has to do with the mistakes we make about love, the regrets, the wisdom it brings, and the heartache. This is all examined in New York, a city that is depicted in movies more times than any other city. New York seems to mean different things to different people, but to Woody Allen it encompasses whatever you want it to be, that's the magic of the city.

The film begins with a voice over of Allen dictating a story idea, he's trying to describe what New York means to him, as he's talking we are treated with various shots of the city, all in black and white filmed by Gordon Willis who shot many of Allen's films as well as "The Godfather". The shots are accompanied by the music of George Gershwin, it gives you the pure romantic idea of New York City, it has never looked better on film.

We are introduced to Allen's character, he plays Isaac a middle aged intellectual living in New York working as a comedy writer. Isaac is dating Tracey (Mariel Hemingway), a 17 year old drama student, she is young, yet we get the feeling she is wise beyond her years. At the very start Isaac doesn't know what he's doing with Tracey, he's 42, she's 17, he's convinced it can't last.

Meanwhile Isaac's married friend Yale (Michael Murphy) has started having an affair with Mary (Diane Keaton), a pushy, opinionated, intellectual who Isaac dismisses almost right away. Yet time passes, Isaac and Mary meet at a party and get to talking more. There is an instant rapport with them, they spend more time together. Soon Yale's marriage gets in the way and he decides to stop seeing Mary. She leans on Isaac for comfort; Isaac sees Mary as a woman who is now available who he falls for, she is more practical for him, she's closer to his age and someone who he feels a connection with. He convinces himself that Tracey isn't the girl for him, she has her whole life ahead of her, so he decides to let her go to pursue Mary, yet Tracey is devastated, she is sincerely hurt by Isaac's rejection, never the less, Isaac begins to see Mary, but it becomes far more complicated than that since these are real human beings we are working with.

Watching "Manhattan" again after so many times, I looked at it somewhat differently, at first I always thought that Isaac and Mary were never in love, that it was just a fleeting thing, yet Allen makes their relationship at times very romantic. I am now convinced that they were in love no matter if it was fleeting or not. Tracey of course becomes the girl that Isaac longs for at the end, yet these are the universal complications love brings. Isaac probably was in love with Mary, even though some may argue that she was the practical choice since she was so close to the same age, yet there are tender loving moments they share together, that are mirrored by Isaac and Tracey. I would argue the two most romantic moments in the film are when Isaac and Mary share a walk around New York, and the scene with them in the planetarium where there is an attraction both of them don't admit only to hide their real feelings through intellectual double talk.

The other person hopelessly in love is Yale who still has feelings for Mary, as she does for him, but can it be possible for people to love someone else at the same time, this is what I think Allen explores. The characters in Allen's films all look at the world in an intellectual point of view, and he excels at this type of world being able to capture the shared nuances but also the hypocritical behaviour they all share. Allen deals with these people as real human beings who all seem to have trouble getting over their own neurosis in order to be happy. The only one who seems to know what she wants is Tracey, probably because throughout the film she's the one who remains the most pure and innocent, and you can tell Allen loves these kind of people, she isn't corrupted, and the film ends in a cautious optimistic moment where she tells Isaac "you just got to have a little faith in people." It ends with Allen giving a small smile, at first I always thought this was a cautious smile a hint that he doesn't quite swallow what Tracey is saying, now when I see it, it's almost as if he's smiling at her since she is probably the only person in the film who would say something like that to him. In hindsight, I'd say the ending is the time Isaac looks more happy than he had in the entire film.

Looking at "Manhattan" now, I'm more in awe of it than I ever, there were small moments I had never noticed before such as Allen's sighing when he's dictating in his tape recorder things that make life worth living and he remembers Tracey's smile, there's also Mariel Hemingway's soft crying as she is told by Isaac he no longer wants to see her. As Mary, Diane Keaton gives a sort of anti-Annie Hall performance, Mary is more needy, and more neurotic than she was in that other masterpiece of Allen's, her break-up scene with Yale just shows just how good of an actress she is.

Along with the moments I've just noticed, there are of course the moments I have never forgotten such as the scene in the planetarium with Isaac and Mary, Gordon Willis outdoes himself with some of these shots, some of which show them as if they are in space talking among the stars and the planets. The conversation becomes about the universe and the scene with the two actors mostly in shadow becomes very romantic.

"Manhattan" is among Allen's best films, it encompasses much of what he explores over and over again, yet only a few times has it been this perfect, other instances would be with "Annie Hall", and "Hannah and her Sisters". "Manhattan" was made when Allen still had that little faith in people, he would struggle with his optimism but that's what made his films so endearing, lately he's gotten hard and cynical, pointing more and more to the meaningless of life, I hope he finds that faith again that Tracey was talking about.