IS WOODY ALLEN DEAD IN AMERICA?
The movie works but old-school treading of safely entertaining tropes is a disappointment, writes
For over four decades Woody Allen has performed a feat unique in the history of modern American movies, producing an average of one film a year. But his latest, A Rainy Day in New York, almost threatened to scuttle Allen’s prolific work rate, thanks to controversies surrounding accusations that he abused his daughter Dylan Farrow in the 1990s. Amazon Studios, who signed the director for a multi-picture contract in 2016, backed away from their relationship with Allen and have not released the film for US distribution, leading to a legal battle between the studio and the director. Allen has already secured European funding for his next production, Rifkin’s Festival, which is in production, but A Rainy Day in New York may well mark the end of the 83year-old’s career in America.
The film itself treads charming, witty and familiarly anachronistic territory for Allen fans but has been marred by the controversy and statements by many of its cast in which they have publicly regretted their participation and renounced the director. As a middle-class American comedy of manners, separate from any of the accusations or rumours surrounding
Allen, the film works perfectly adequately on its own terms, but it’s hard not to see its old-school treading of safely entertaining Allen tropes as a disappointment in so far as it presents a stubborn determination on the part of its creator to ignore the changes going on beyond the hermeneutic insular vision he presents on screen.
That said, it’s hard not to be gently and easily taken in by the funny jokes, suitably Allenesque character impersonations and winsomely created rain-drenched, uppercrust Manhattan locations and atmosphere.
There are many of Allen’s favourite preoccupations on display here: romance between older men and younger women, literary references, anachronistic ’30s jazz music, satirical barbs targeting foibles of the American intellectual set.
The story presents a single day, Catcher in the Rye-influenced tale of the adventures of precocious but unfocused college student Gatsby Wells (Timothée Chalamet), who accompanies his girlfriend, the naive but dedicated college film critic Ashleigh Enright (Elle Fanning) on what is supposed to be a romantic day in Manhattan for an interview she’s conducting with film auteur Roland Pollard (Liev Schreiber). Cue the predictable comedy of errors and lifechanging realisations as the couple are separated and sent on journeys that will fundamentally change their relationship and their attitudes to their lives forever.
Gatsby meets Shannon (Selena Gomez), the sister of a girl he dated as a teen. Ashleigh’s innocent girl from Arizona wholesomeness charms the film crowd and by the time they manage to reconnect, one rainy day in New York has led to inevitable reassessment and new opportunities.
For Allen haters, all the neurotic navelgazing self-analysis and smart intellectual references that grind are fully milked, and for fans it’s an enjoyable, funnier than usual, solid piece of traditionally comforting Woody Allen storytelling.
Whatever else may be said about Allen and his battles with Amazon, A Rainy Day in New York is not a terrible film but it’s not particularly relevant either. Sadly, it may be the last of Allen’s quaintly old-fashioned but charming love letters to Manhattan but it’s not the last film up he has up his sleeve.
Many of its cast have publicly regretted their participation and renounced the director
A Rainy Day in New York is on circuit