Manhattan Murder Mystery
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List Price: $19.98
Features
• Closed-captioned
• Color
• NTSC
In Theaters : 18 August, 1993
Video Release : 20 June, 1995 |
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Manhattan Murder Mystery Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Woody Allen Light
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The great thing about Woody Allen is his life is never far from his art and the problem with Woody Allen is that his life is never far from his art. Manhattan Murder Mystery was filmed when Farrow and Allen were breaking up and by that time Allen had already been long involved with Soon Yi. Manhattan Murder Mystery reflects his moving to a, ummm shall we say, less mature viewpoint.
On the surface, Manhattan Murder Mystery is nothing more than a light comedy about two sophisticated Manhattanites (Keaton and Allen) who suspect their neighbor of murder after his wife dies. Keaton's female intuition tells her something is wrong but Allen wants to mind his business. Keaton turns to friend, Alan Alda, to explore the mystery with her. Alda plays a character who is almost like family because of his long standing relationship with the couple, but he is enough of a stranger that Keaton and Alda could still have an affair. (Sound familar?) In the meantime, Allen turns to comfortingly non-neurotic Angelica Houston for friendship. This is a comedy and the friendships remain friendly and there is no betrayal. Keaton's intution about the neighbor proves correct and Allen's belief in her is cemented. In the end, Keaton and Allen's relationship is back on solid footing.
The typical Allen hallmarks are here. New York is a definite character in the film. The script is dialogue based and the music is great old jazz tunes sparsely sprinkled over scene shots. Music and action do not compete with the actors. Allen and Keaton are neurotic and play off each other well. Keaton's performance is familar-almost too familar. She never seemed to be an actress that reached and she's playing the same neurotic, not too strong, friendly, cerebal woman here, but she's still enjoyable to watch.
Manhattan Murder Mystery is Woody Allen light, but worth watching. It's intelligent comedy and a good break from films where farts are the main attraction. My favourite Allen films are still Deconstructing Harry (I love the scene in hell with Billy Crystal), Crimes and Misdemeanors (for it's view on life), and Annie Hall (for sentimental reasons because it was the first film to have an impression on me when I was a kid. Other kids my age wanted to be Orphan Annie in the Broadway play, but I wanted to be Annie Hall). |
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