To quote General Corman from Apocalypse Now… “Because there’s a conflict in every human heart, between the rational and irrational, between good and evil. And good does not always triumph. Sometimes, the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature.”
Just as there is a fine line between love and hate, pleasure and pain, the rational man is a mere stitch away from the irrational, and that’s the thread that is taken up and tailored into another seriously funny, funnily serious entertainment from Woody Allen, IRRATIONAL MAN.
Joaquin Phoenix plays Abe Lucas, a brilliant but tormented philosophy professor in existential crisis.
On securing a teaching post, he arrives at the small bucolic Braylin College in Rhode Island feeling that his life is meaningless. Of course, such a charismatic, radical romantic prone to bleak depressions is catnip to some females and he quickly draws the attention of Rita Richards, a lonely professor played by Parker Posey, who fantasises about a full blown affair that will rescue her from her unhappy marriage.
Unfortunately, all the verbal masturbation of philosophical espousing has left Abe sexually impotent and he has lately been finding more satisfaction sipping the whiskey than splitting the whisker.
Abe also attracts another admirer in Jill Pollard, played by Woody’s muse of the moment, Emma Stone, a bright young student who finds his tortured artistic personality irresistible, much to the irritation of her white bread, vanilla Ivy League boyfriend, Roy, played by Jamie Blackley.
Arbitrarily, Abe overhears a stranger’s tale of woeful behaviour at the hands of a corrupt judge and sees his opportunity to perform what he believes is a moral act and suddenly his life has purpose.
He snaps into action, shrugging off theoretical posturings and the doldrums that bedevil him and assumes the role of avenging angel, plotting the perfect murder, and putting pep into his moribund life. Reinvigorated man, however, comes at the price of unraveling man when his irreversible action spirals into irresponsible man.
Music has always been integral to Woody Allen’s films and IRRATIONAL MAN is no exception. The soundtrack is largely the Ramsay Lewis Trio, notably “The ‘In’ Crowd,” as well as “Wade in the Water” and “Look-A-Here.” Says Allen: “It’s got a relentless, pulsating beat that works very well for the visual material, whether people are driving to it or walking to it or behaving badly to it. There’s a hot tone and rhythm to it, so it suggests the tempestuousness of every character’s personality.” And this is exactly what it does….
Here is Woody Allen mulling and musing over the morality of murder, of how justifiable homicide can ever be really reconciled with rational behaviour. It seems that Woody alternates between the frothy and frivolous and the more meaty with each new film that he makes.
Last year, we had the souffle confectionery of Magic in the Moonlight which was preceded by the more meaty Blue Jasmine which in turn followed the slight To Rome With Love.
With this latest film we see Woody return to the philosophical terrain of Crimes and Misdemeanors and Cassandra’s Dream.