Day 55 Irrational Man [2015]
Screenplay Woody Allen
Director Woody
Allen
Cinematography Darius
Khondji
Music Woody
Allen?
Leads Joaquin Phoenix,
Emma Stone, Parker Posey
Production Gravier Productions,
Perdido Productions
IMDb 6.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes 46%
The start of a bad run of films for the blog? A
real dud of a film from such a famous director. It’s about an alcoholic
philosophy professor, Abe Lucas (Phoenix), who is going through an existential
crisis and takes a job at a small ivy-league college. His reputation precedes
him as a maverick teacher with a history of affairs with students and
colleagues alike. One of his students, Jill (Stone), falls in love with him which
he resists at first. However, after overhearing a woman in a diner talking about
a corrupt judge he plots to murder said judge in order to find meaning in his
own life. Abe and Jill then fall in love until Jill works out that Abe
succeeded in murdering the judge and forces him to own up to his crime. Abe
cannot do it so instead attempts to murder Jill but meets an untimely end. It
felt like a three-hour film condensed into an hour and a half, I really wanted
to get to know the characters more. There were flashes of Abe’s philosophy on life,
but it came in the form of basic A-level philosophy, it was shallow and really
didn’t give us much insight into Abe’s true feelings. I love Phoenix, and he
wasn’t bad, but his character could have been so much more interesting. For example,
there is a scene where he plays Russian roulette with himself at a party. This
was our only glimpse into his crazy mind. Stone and Parker Posey were also good.
Posey played another college professor who had an affair with Abe before Jill
and wanted to run away with him to Spain. I haven’t watched many of Allen’s
film, and I know there are far better ones out there, but this was not a good
representation of his work by any means.
Acting 2.5
/ 4
Writing 1.5
/ 4
Cinematography 2
/ 4
Music 1.5
/ 4
HWF rating 1.5 / 4