Manhattan is the story of Isaac Davis, a struggling, twice divorced, middle aged television writer as he attempts to decipher the endless complexities of love and romance in the middle of the titular city. Woody Allen writes, directs, and stars as Davis, a carbon copy of Allen himself, far removed from the camp of Bananas and Sleeper, but still tactfully cognizant of the absurdities of everyday existence. Davis first falls in love with a 17 year old girl named Tracy, 25 years her senior, and proceeds to patronize and educate her high school mind in the ways of love. The inherent irony is that Davis has nowhere near grasped the subjects himself, for if he did, he would not be involved with a high school junior. But after Davis meets his friend Yale’s mistress Mary (Diane Keaton), he quickly falls for her journalistic quick wit and elevated conversations, preferring their walks in the park and heated discussions of Ingmar Bergman to the innocence and youth of Tracy. The plot thickens and develops, all the while remaining comfortably simple and grounded.
Manhattan is a surprisingly straightforward romantic comedy for the likes of Allen. Whereas this could signal a move towards commercial acceptance on a larger scale, it instead alludes to a more developed narrative style of the prolific writer and director. The film is equal parts charming and unsettling (one can’t help but think of Allen’s more recent flirtations with pedophilia) with an infectious air of the urbane. Rather than a fierce comeuppance for the upper classes of New York society (Crimes and Misdemeanors), Allen realizes his own place in the pretentious milieu and embraces its incongruities, all the while skewering its conspirators. What sets the film apart from its encompassing catalog is the cinematography. Allen has an eye for the beauty of Manhattan while cinematographer Gordon Willis (The Godfather trilogy, Annie Hall) has a vision conveyed in a balanced black and white. Willis bathes the metropolis in a vapid dreamy fog and the scenes in the planetarium seduce the viewer with their sheer beauty. Allen’s perennially witty dialogue complements an already gorgeous film, possibly the most complete pairing of the two in his vast filmography. Ultimately, Manhattan is about one man’s love for a city of contradictions, envisioning each as both antagonistic and complementary in their ultimate, beautiful sum.
