DVDs:

	Manhattan Murder Mystery Woody Allen, Diane Keaton Sony Pictures, 1998 average customer review:based on 70 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

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This script had been laying around for quite some time, and when Allen decided to resurrect it, I'm SO glad he got Diane Keaton to join him for the filming. Their chemistry is still there, and so is Allen's wonderful neurotic schtick. The elevator scene is priceless. I also greatly enjoyed the tape-player skit with Allen's inimitable bumbling.

I think the film hiccups a bit when it abruptly switches to a film-noir ending. Mind you, I enjoyed the ending, especially the Welles homage, but I think this decidedly dark ending causes the whole vehicle to lose momentum.

All in all this great fun with plenty of zany suspense and the fabulous interplay of Allen and Keaton.

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Lightweight and pleasant suspense spoof

"Manhattan Murder Mystery" is one of Woody Allen's most pleasurable recent films. Reunited once again with Diane Keaton, Woody Allen plays a typical Manhattan milquetoast whose somewhat kooky wife is obsessed with the idea that an elderly neighbor might be a murderer. Complicating the plot somewhat are the strains that Woody and Diane's characters feel on their longime marriage. Woody's character is pursued by author Marcia Fox (Anjelica Huston), and Diane's character is pursued by recently divorced friend Ted (Alan Alda); it's clear that much of the magic has gone out of this marriage and perhaps it is coming to an ending.

As expected in a Woody Allen film made before his decline into schtick and slapstick, all the leads are exceptionally good. As a director, Allen has a special skill for capturing the speech rhythms of a certain generation and class of New Yorkers. More than one reviewer has correctly commented that Woody and Diane's characters could almost be the same characters they played in "Annie Hall" nearly 20 years earlier, so skilled is their interplay. Huston is typically brilliant, and it's a pleasure to watch Alan Alda play a somewhat sleazier character than he was allowed to as Hawkeye Pierce on "MASH."

For all its strong points, however, the bulk of this film is as forgettable as the lightweight Made-for-TV Mysteries that clog the cable airwaves. There's little real suspense here, and Woody's homages to classic thrillers are far too subtle to have any real impact. Unlike, say, Mel Brooks' "High Anxiety," it's hard to say what exactly Woody is trying to accomplish with his homages. Considering that the movie is set in modern day Manhattan (which has a relatively high murder rate), Woody and Diane's updated Nancy Drew routine seems somewhat out-of-place.

The real mystery here is why actor Ron Rifkin is so criminally underused in this film. Rifkin's capable of extreme creepiness (as anyone who's seen him in "Alias" can attest) and could have given this film more if Woody had allowed him.

Rent this film if you are a fan of classic Woody Allen or lightweight old-fashioned mysteries.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

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