A Full View of Manhattan

Everyone has a place they are in love with. Woody Allen clearly loves New York, you can tell in the opening shots and monologue of Manhattan when Woody playing Isaac Davis talks about his city changing for the worse. As in most Woody Allen films it feels as if Woody himself is simply expressing his own opinion through his dialouge. Once again Woody plays a neurotic and talkative character who is in confusing relationships. Manhattan is about Isaac Davis and two women; Tracy the 17 year old high school senior that Isaac is dating at the beginning of the movie and Mary, Isaac's best friend's mistress who is an intellectual writer who seems to overthink a lot. Isaac isn't really sure about what direction he should go with his love life and when he finally makes his decision to be with Mary, her sudden change of heart leaves him alone and unsure of what he should do. All the meanwhile Isaac's lesbian ex wife Jill (Meryl Streep) is writing a tell all book on their relationship that doesn't really do much to help his image. Manhattan is a good movie, visually its amazing. Shot entirely in black and white with several uses of silhouettes the film feels very much like a window into another world. The dialouge is similar to all of Woody Allens films, fast paced and smart. The main problem I have with Manhattan is that it brings up the storyline of the tell all book and barely goes into it, these scenes were some of my favorite in the movie, it could of been an entirely seperate movie I think, there just wasn't enough to satisfy me. It was kind of hard to watch the ending where Isaac goes back to Tracy. Knowing how Woody Allen will turn out its just generally unsettling to watch him end up with an 18 year old girl at the end of the movie. Although the ending is justified seeing as Isaac had really nowhere else to turn and just wanted to go somewhere where he felt raw happiness. I guess it was just about Woodys point of view on the situation, his paticular view was of Manhattan.

Possible Signatures:

Ending Credits the same as the other films I have watched

Characters often not in the center of the shot to portray a more realistic view

Use of certain theme throughout (Sleeper: Silent film comedy, Annie Hall: Fourth wall breakdown, Manhattan: Silhouttes)