Manhattan (1979) is Woody Allen's paean to the beautiful mess that is NY and its lovers (aka its inhabitants).

It's a bulls eye depiction of NY — NYers talking about anything from sex to relationships to shopping in the plain light of day completely absorbed in their own microcosm, without a thought to what passersby might overhear. Our eyes ever-wandering trying to take each and every sight in. Allen geniusly captures our love misadventures and how just about every conversation somehow ends up being about our relationships, or lack thereof! He is brilliant at showing how nothing fazes us: not an affair, not the end of an affair, not an affair between a 42 year old man and a 17 year old high school senior. We just keep on resiliently trucking our open city streets. And somehow in the dizzying pace and breakneck speed with which this city revolves we find time to spend with loved ones/self-made "families", to renew ourselves and quiet our neuroses.

Ahhhhh and that Gershwin soundtrack is magnificently appropriate! Such an ode to the multifaceted and complex character of NY.

Allen and Keaton are a superb match as usual. But meryl streep. Wow is she immortally sexy in this movie, who would've ever thought?!

Here, my fave lines:
"Isaac (Woody Allen): So whaddaya got to eat here? Nothing, right? You got -- Oh Jesus. You got a corned beef sandwich here from 1951 I think -- Mary (Diane Keaton):I know. I know I don't have time to cook."

We adore our city, like our lovers, and nothing, not its snoring or stinky streets can make us love it less. Even though we can never find a cab when we're in the direst of rushes!

August 20, 2007