Could it be that Woody Allen just needs a vacation? Every year, he writes and directs a new film, and every year it brings less to the table than its predecessor. Some believe these projects vary in quality — that, say, a “Blue Jasmine” (2013) is superior to last year’s “Magic in the Moonlight” — but to me his body of work has become a study in diminishing returns. A few decades ago, his worst crime (as a filmmaker, anyway) was an “ecstasy of influence” — an unabashed, one-man immersion program in whichever artist held his fancy (usually Ingmar Bergman). These days the Woodman has taken to plagiarizing himself, which is akin to making a carbon copy of a carbon copy. Instead of making his newest, “Irrational Man” — an unfortunate echo of “Crimes and Misdemeanors” — perhaps he should have stopped to smell the roses, if for no other reason than to garner real-life experience for later plundering.
Abe is a hotshot philosophy professor (Jouquin Phoenix) who, drunken and depressive, can’t seem to will himself into caring about anything or anybody — not even the two beauties vying for his attention at the fictional (and highly unrealistic) Newport, Rhode Island university where he’s taken a teaching position. Manic science professor Rita, played by a Parker Posey hilariously unmoored in loose-fitting blouses and darting eyes, seems just what the doctor ordered but Abe is immune to her advances. Ostensibly it’s because he’s too much of a sadsack but we should know by now that couplings between contemporaries over age thirty is like a crime against nature in an Allen film. Abe is tempted by student Jill (Emma Stone), but not even her bright, bi-Cyclops gaze can penetrate his ennui. What works are his plans to kill a corrupt judge. Just strategizing about it gets his blood pumping again, which gets Jill’s blood pumping — at least until she begins to suspect what’s caused his change of heart. It’s too bad our blood doesn’t start pumping, too. Continue Reading →