Today's been a good, lazy day. Planning for this week's classes (not really that big a deal, the week before Spring Break begins) happened in the middle of watching movies and tennis, and eating. Despite the fact that it was a good day, it does bother me just a little bit that I was able to summarize the entirety of the day in about 17 words.
I must really love Woody Allen. Or mysteries. Or the both. This is my third Allen movie on the list and I'm planning a few more, as well, including re-watching Match Point, a movie I've had an urge to see again for awhile now. Thankfully, however, this picture is very different from the previous two: Interiors was a classic Allen talky about a dysfunctional family, What's Up, Tiger Lily? was pure intelligence taking a swing at terrible movies for a decidedly campy feel, and Manhattan Murder Mystery splits the difference. It is unbelievably light, even in its most tense moments, and is incredibly droll, even for an Allen comedy.
Its beginning is simple enough: Allen is a somewhat neurotic New Yorker married to someone completely out of his league (in this case, Diane Keaton) and they talk talk talk and meet their neighbors, a charming older couple, and with them they talk talk talk, but the twist comes soon enough: the wife in the couple dies of a coronary and Keaton is immediately suspicious, since they spent the whole previous night talking about how healthy she was. Enter amateur detective Keaton, abetted by her friend played by Alan Alda, who decides to get to the bottom of what she supposes is actually a murder.
Allen initially boohoos the whole idea, but his neuroses lead him to think that more is going on between his wife and Alda, so he decides to assist in the "investigation". Let's bring Anjelica Huston into the fold as well, as a witty and upper-crust author whose editor is Allen, and make it a plot square when Keaton thinks something is going on with her and her husband. Fast forward to a lot of following the widowed husband around, inventing wild accusations and possibilities, and watching the whole situation comically unravel to its ending.
When I saw that this film was made in 1993, I was a little worried, since it preceded a very good Mighty Aphrodite and a fantastic Bullets over Broadway ("Don't speak.") and has a lot to live up to from that era. This movie falls squarely between the two (it's not as funny as BoB and doesn't have quite the heart of MA, but the overall effect is grander than MA) and ably toes the line between intellectual comedy and procedural dramatic mystery.
Score: 9/10
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