Irrational Man (DVD Review)

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Parker Posey, Jamie Blackley
Directed By: Woody Allen
Running Time: 95 minutes
UK Release Date: Out Now
BBFC Certificate: 15

It’s not easy being a Woody Allen fan these days. Although he has not actually been in any of his own films for a full decade now, his very name inspires revulsion in many people. The 21st century has certainly not been a good one for him so far. True, Midnight In Paris five years ago was a genuine delight and according to some reports is the highest grossing of the films he has directed. Vicky Christina Barcelona was plenty of fun. But that’s it really.

To be a Woody Allen fan these days is a bit like being a Labour Party supporter or someone who reads every book by Stephen King. One spends all one’s time reminding people how much better things have been in the past. It is true. But, harping on about how good The Shining or Manhattan or the Good Friday Agreement were cannot conceal the fact that things aren’t good now.

Irrational Man features Joaquim Phoenix as Abe Lucas, a Philosophy lecturer who has just arrived to take up a new position at a US college. Lucas’s arrival stirs up a ripple of excitement among the staff and student population alike and particularly provokes the interest of student Jill (Emma Stone). Unfortunately, Jill’s growing obsession with the older man understandably antagonises her current boyfriend.

Jill’s own interest also provokes the ire of Abe’s colleague Rita (Parker Posey) who has ill-concealed amorous intentions towards Lucas herself. Worse still, Lucas (who is a bit Kant obsessed – that is, Immanuel Kant, the philosopher) is for some reason intent on “pulling a Raskolnikov” and committing the perfect murder.

What is the point of all this? It isn’t funny nor is it original. Allen himself gas already explored these themes much better In Crimes and Misdemeanours and slightly less well in Match Point. Emma Stone is pretty good as always but it’s hard not to feel she’s wasting her time here. Phoenix is okay too but it is hard to care about such a dull self-obsessed character, even if he does manage to avoid being the usual standard Woody Allen jazz loving, old in a young body neurotic.

Woody Allen has directed nearly 50 films now. As his career presumably nears its end, by my reckoning about half of them are worth watching. In a sense, that isn’t a bad record. How many people can claim to have directed over 20 watchable films?

On the other hand, it does leave the world with around twenty or more films which, like Anything Else, Celebrity or Scoop aren’t worth bothering with. And guess what? This is one of those.

Overall Verdict: Allen Resurrection? No. One of Woody’s worst.

Reviewer: Chris Hallam