Manhattan

On my way home from my bike ride, I saw a deer at the end of my street.  It was a young guy, nice head of antlers.  All I could think of was "The Deer Hunter."  Run, I wanted to shout, Robert De Niro is trying to shoot you.

I think that's a bad sign.

Also that I'm starting to compulsively notice Meryl movies.  I was at my favorite bookstore yesterday, looking at the movies.  Why did they have movies?  It's a bookstore.  Anyway, I was looking at the movies and immediately noticed the two Meryl movies, without needing to look at the cast list ("Marvin's Room" and "Before and After") and was trying to remember if they were in the magic four I need to buy.  They weren't.

But I think that's a bad sign too.

Somewhere, in the craziness of the past few days (film festivals are insane, don't even ask) I managed to finish "Manhattan."  

This movie contained two firsts for me.

1 - It was the first Meryl movie I've watched since starting this project where no one died.  That was kind of nice.

2 - It was my first Woody Allen movie.  Woody Allen will always remind me of this speech I heard once at debate practice.  Yes, I was nerdy enough to be on the debate team.  The prompt was the Allen quote, "Should sex be dirty?  Yes, if it's done right."  The result was a speech entirely about fluids.  It was memorable.

But what should I think of Woody Allen?  Is he a comic genius?  If so, his humor may be a little too deep for me.  I liked his dialogue.  This may be optimistic, but I think I caught about half of his references.  Or should I immediately remember that his wikipedia page has a section devoted to each of his major relationships?  On the other hand, so does Henry VIII.

So, lets start at the very beginning, which, as Julie Andrews tells us, is a very good place to start.  When you read, you begin with ABC.  When you watch movies, you begin with the first ten minutes.

We start with some truly epic shots of New York City.  I read someplace (wikipedia) that New York is a character in the film and it's true.  The shots of Manhattan are gorgeous.  It's not just the touristy bits, we get scenes of bridges and random buildings.  What the hell is this?  Who cares, it's New York.

Behind the views, or in front of, I'm not sure which, is Woody Allen's omnipresent voice.  He's narrating the first chapter of his book, or attempting to.  We never get more than a sentence in when he starts over.

"Too corny, too corny for my taste."

"No, it's going to be too preachy.  Lets face it, we want to sell some books here."

And each time he does the opposite of what he's pointed out.  I'm not sure if this is supposed to be funny or it's simply Allen doing his thing.

"Behind his black rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat."

Woah there.  Cue major orchestral drama and major landscape shots of Central Park.  The overture ends with fireworks over the city.  This may say a lot about my generation but for a second I thought it was an explosion.

We find ourselves in a crowded restaurant facing a guy who is not Woody Allen.  He's Michael Murphey, and he's trying to describe the purpose of art to Muriel Hemmingway.  Hemmingway, granddaughter of Ernest, would later be nominated for an Oscar for this film. 

"Talent is luck," Yale (Murphey) says to Tracy.  Huh?  Talent is talent, recognized talent is luck.  The camera expands and we get Yale's companion and Isaac (Allen).  

"But the important thing in life is courage," Isaac says and launches into a hypothetical situation in which they see someone drowning and if anyone will jump in to save the poor person.  He finishes with "I, of course, can't swim, so I never have to face it."  And that sentence pretty much sums up Allen's character.  Throughout the film he is constantly excusing himself from things.  Of course, at four minutes and 46 seconds in, we don't know this yet.

Allen makes a big show of smoking a cigarette but not inhaling.  Lucille Ball said she never inhaled either.  Tracy excuses herself.

Yale: She's gorgeous.

Isaac: She's seventeen.

Excuse me?  She's seventeen and he's forty two.  As he points out, he's older than her father.  As someone who is frequently attracted to people older than me, even I have to say, how is that not awkward?  And illegal.

We also get to hear about Isaac's ex-wife (who will later become Meryl Streep) who is writing a book about their marriage.  Or disintegration thereof.  It's deemed tacky.

"Gossip is the new pornography," Yale says.  Deep.  Hasn't it always been?

They leave the restaurant and Yale confesses he’s having an affair with Diane Keaton.  Great, so everyone’s relationships are convoluted.  If they weren’t convoluted we probably wouldn’t have a movie.  They discuss this with the women walking half a block behind them, what are they? Deaf?

Yale and his wife, Emily, (Anne Byrne Hoffman) head home to their extremely artsy fartsy apartment (there are potted plants in the kitchen) and discuss how Isaac is wasting his life.  And not by dating the seventeen year old.

Emily brings up kids.  Uh-oh.  Tension is in the air.

Morning, someone is leaving a building.  It's Meryl Streep.  I don't actually remember what her character's name is.  She's very loose and gorgeous and blonde in this film.  She left Isaac for a woman.  Sucks for him.  No wonder he's dating a seventeen year old.  He's waiting for her behind a pillar.  Creepy.  And he's very upset about the prospect of a book about their marriage.  One might think that'd be a major plot point, but it isn't.  It comes and goes and most of the time we just forget about it.

Meryl's part is pretty minor.  Isaac comes over to pick up their son and they bicker.  That's about it.  The book eventually comes out and we kind of forget about it.

This is Woody Allen's movie.  Woody Allen and Diane Keaton.  But mostly Woody Allen.  If you let that go to your head, it's extremely narcissistic.  Separation of Isaac and Allen is extremely important.

Cast-y bits: Diane Keaton's ex-husband is played by Wallace Shawn in his first film.  Wallace Shawn is otherwise known as the Sicilian in the Princess Bride.  He would like to appear in a quick PSA reminding you not to get in a land war in Asia.

Overall cool movie scale: 7.  I think this is a well crafted movie, but I need to see it a few more times before I get all of it.  As such, it was enjoyable and at times I giggled.

Action scale: 1.  Woody Allen jogs through Manhattan.

Hot sex scene scale (I've been leaving this one out, sorry about that): 4.  People in bed having discussions about sex.  One assumes sex has or will occur.  Or maybe people just like to talk in their underwear in New York.

Script scale:  7.  At times the dialogue was a bit pretentious and at times it made me feel stupid.  But I liked the banter stuff between Allen and Keaton, it was charming.

Other creative-y stuff: 9.  Loved all the shots of New York and it's in black and white.  

Nerdy bits scale: 8 Lots of references to artistic culture.  I didn't get all of them.  I really liked Woody Allen's list of things to live for.

Streep scale: 8.  Bit part.  There's a scene where Allen's pestering her to not write the tell all book about their marriage.  She smirks and says "Look at you, you're so threatened."  It's kind of my favorite part of the movie.

I'm going to Hawaii tomorrow, but I'll try to update while I'm gone.

There are four Meryl Streep movies that aren't on netflix.  I've bought two off ebay so far, still looking for the last two.  "Seduction of Joe Tynan," the next movie on the list is one I had to buy and looks like it's going to get here while I'm gone.  After that is "Kramer vs. Kramer" and "The French's Lieutenant's Woman."