Netflix And Chill: Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)

I am one of many people who can be asked about the filmography of one Allan Stewart Konigsberg (AKA Woody Allen) and say that I preferred his earlier, funny, films. Some of his attempts to emulate Bergman are awful, although others love them, and I always think that if you want that kind of Bergman movie then you should just seek out, well, a Bergman movie. But if you want a Woody Allen movie, with a heap of one-liners and a main character, or two, just riddled with neuroses then you should seek out a Woody Allen movie.

Manhattan Murder Mystery is an attempt to blend the light with the dark once again, as Allen has done many times, with varying degrees of success. Based on an idea that was written many years before, mainly as a sub-plot in Annie Hall (hence a co-writing credit for Marshall Brickman),  and left to gather dust, I can easily see how this is almost prime Woody Allen for many people. Not for me though.

Allen and Diane Keaton star as Larry and Carol Lipton, a married couple who have settled in to a life of occasional trips to try enjoying some culture, polite dinners with friends, and dodging other social invites when they just don't want to put their energy into meeting people and making small-talk. But things liven up a bit when Carol becomes convinced that their neighbour, Paul (Jerry Adler), has killed his wife, Lillian (Lynn Cohen). Not content to wallow alone in their paranoia and curiosity, the Lipton’s drag in two friends, Ted (Alan Alda) and Marcia (Anjelica Huston), the latter being a writer, and client of Larry, who may have a better mindset for figuring out how to catch a killer.

The biggest problem with this film is actually Allen. Giving himself the lead role once again, instead of one of the many acting avatars he has used in other lead roles, Allen bring up his entire past filmography with his presence, and so many of those cover very similar ground, but do everything much better. If you want a Woody Allen film with him being his usual onscreen self then you can pick a dozen movies better than this one. If you want a Woody Allen crime comedy then you can also pick about a dozen movies better than this. As ever, to be fair, there is one specific point that Allen is making here, and this time around it is all about loved ones pulling themselves out of a rut, but it isn’t good enough to sustain what is a fairly light, and often disappointingly mirth-free, film.

Keaton is a fun presence, very childish in her urge to dive headlong into a mystery, so that helps. Alda and Huston are welcome additions, both bringing their usual personality traits to the characters they portray, and Adler manages to go about his business while having everything he does viewed with suspicion.

Some nice musical cues crop up here and there, there are a couple of gems buried in the script, and it all zips along briskly enough, but this is definitely a lesser Allen movie. It’s far from his worst, mainly because it isn’t beholden to Bergman, but it barely manages to feel like something worth your time.

5/10

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Magic In The Moonlight (2014)

Although there are still delights to be found, a modern Woody Allen movie seems to have the same template. The writer-director will include some lovely jazz on the soundtrack, he'll use the movie to explore one main topic, with love always either helping or clouding the issue, and an assorted cast of great names will have some fun in some picturesque European locations (although New York is also an acceptable setting). I'm not saying that every film he has made over the past couple of decades is EXACTLY the same (Blue Jasmine happened to take place in San Francisco, for example). I'm just saying that he's almost become a genre unto himself. Gone are the days when his movies were either funny or serious, gone are the more interesting/fun ideas (such as those explored in Zelig and Sleeper), and gone is the sharpness. It can appear, at times, as if Allen is giving people an impression of an Allen movie. Allen-lite, if you like.

Colin Firth plays Wei Ling Soo, a master stage magician who can also remove the clothing and make-up to move around more inconspicuously as . . . . . . . Stanley. Stanley is famous for his cynicism and ability to disprove psychic phenomena, which is why his friend (Howard Burkan, played by Simon McBurney) enlists his aid when he thinks that he has met a young woman (Emma Stone) who has a real gift. So begins a battle of wits, with Stanley soon coming around to the fact that he may actually have met someone with a very real, very astonishing, psychic ability. He may not even notice the fact that love is in the air, so intent is he on trying to expose the girl for the fake that he assumes her to be.

Firth and Stone are both delightful here, although neither are at their very best. The fault doesn't lie with them, but rather with Allen's sadly flat script. Early scenes have a few great lines scattered throughout them, Firth is much more acerbic in the guise of Wei Ling Soo than he is as Stanley, and then it starts a gentle slide downhill from there. All is not lost, however, thanks to some solid support from Eileen Atkins, Jacki Weaver, Marcia Gay Harden and Hamish Linklater. And those leads.

The main theme being looked at here is whether or not lying is good, especially when it can make people so much happier. It's not a bad subject for Allen to explore, it's just a shame that he does so in a way that feels too lightweight for even just one feature. This leads to many scenes in which people just talk about their own views of the universe, and the possibility of spirits and magic, or Firth and Stone dance around one another, figuratively speaking. The latter scenes are far more enjoyable than the former.

You can always tell when a movie is being made by Allen about something that he feels passionate about. There's a story that he feels compelled to tell. With the lacklustre approach he takes here, it's clear that this story could have been pushed aside for something better. It's light and frothy, nothing more and nothing less. Worth a watch, especially if you're a fan of the director and cast, but not necessarily one that you'll be revisiting a few years down the line.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Moonlight-Colin-Firth/dp/B00O0292GW/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1418905545&sr=1-2&keywords=magic+in+the+moonlight