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| Joaquin Phoenix looks swanky (and hides his giant beer gut) on this stylish, albeit slightly dull poster for Woody Allen's Irrational Man |
Irrational Man is the new film from master writer-director Woody Allen (Anything Else (2003)), who is already shooting his next film and also set to direct his first TV-series, both to come out next year. Pushing 80, the impressive man is anything but slowing down.
Abe Lucas is a philosophy professor, who is moving to a friendly New England college, where a couple of women take to his depressed outpourings. Real trouble sets in, as Lucas seizes a radical means to pull himself out of his slump.
Thematically, Allen is in (familiar) Crime and Punishment waters here, (referring to Fyodor Dostoyevsky's classic 1866 novel), and the novel also gets mentioned in the film, along with a long line of other novels, writers and thinkers. As is usually the case with Allen's films, prior knowledge to the intellectual and in this case also the academical world heightens the understanding and pleasure of the film. I found it to be a stimulating story. It's not among Allen's deepest and certainly not his funniest, but as a weary adult's diversion, it's excellent.
SPOILER The weakest moment of the film, and I can't, regrettably, really explain why, is a dinner scene, in which Emma Stone's (Magic in the Moonlight (2014)) character presents her professor Joaquin Phoenix (The Master (2012)) to her parents at home, and they debate the facts surrounding a mysterious local murder. For whatever reason, this scene just doesn't work. But I find that the plot is generally plausible and sound enough, and that this is just a little rough patch in an otherwise good film.
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| Woody Allen directing Jamie Blackley and Emma Stone for his Irrational Man |
The details:
Irrational Man sees Allen work with Phoenix for the first time. Phoenix, in the title role, has grown a solid potbelly for the film (I guess...?), which is impossible not to notice, although I couldn't say I enjoyed his abdominal addition per se. He plays the lead as he finds best and not in the vein of how Allen might have done it himself, which works in his favor, and he does well. Stone is back for her second Allen film, (following Magic in the Moonlight), and she is perfectly cast as the keenly intelligent young woman, SPOILER who still falls right smack for her professor's 'charms'. Parker Posey (The Sweetest Thing (2002)), who is actually 6 years older than Phoenix, is beginning to look her age. - Not to say that she isn't still sexy as hell, though, and she also gives another fine performance in Irrational Man.
Great cinematographer Darius Khondji (Magic in the Moonlight) doesn't get too much to play with visually here. The film has a typically Allenesque, snazzy jazz sound side, although without any majorly recognizable tracks this time.
One of Allen's producers for several decades, Jack Rollins (Alice (1990), executive producer), passed away in June, and Irrational Man is his final screen credit, as co-executive producer.
Related reviews:
2014 in films - according to Film Excess
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
Woody Allen: Magic in the Moonlight (2014) - Allen's irresistible French Riviera romance
Fading Gigolo (2013) - Turturro's pleasant turn as a high-end NY prostitute (as actor)
Blue Jasmine (2013) - Allen presenets Blanchett, a woman under the influence
To Rome with Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date
Midnight in Paris (2011) - Allen's zany (and a little depressing) crowd-pleaser
Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Allen's well-laid but inconsequentiel English cul-de-sac
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) - Allen's hypnotic, noirish shenanigans
Celebrity (1998) or, Stars in New York
Celebrity (1998) or, Beautiful Celebrities Talk About Sex (guest review)
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) - Sin and guilt up for laughs and rumination in unspectacular Allen work
Broadyway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship with Alvie Singer
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (as actor)
Watch the trailer for the film here
Cost: Unknown
Box office: 5.8 mil. $ and counting
= Uncertainty
[Irrational Man was shot in Newport, Rhode Island, in July - August of 2014. It premiered in Cannes, and its domestic gross seems to have landed on a rather flat 3.8 mil. $. Abroad, it has so far done best in Russia, where it has made 0.5 mil. $. It does not, unfortunately, look like it is going to end up as a theatrical hit.]
What do you think of Irrational Man?
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