MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY
A film by Woody Allen
Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Alan Alda, Anjelica Huston, and Jerry Adler
Written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman

One of the craziest movies ever filmed, Woody Allen's MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY is the director's response to the scandals that plagued him at the time of its release. The film, which was shot while Allen was in his personal problems, is ironically enough one of the loosest, freshest, and looniest films Allen has ever made. It is not an artistic triumph, or a groundbreaking effort by an accomplished director. It isn't even a heavily decorated film, worthy of several honors. It is, however, a hilarious comedy that works 90% of the time, and has enough to get the viewer through the other 10%.Larry and Carol Lipton (Allen and Keaton) are a couple living in Manhattan, who one night happen to have a drink with the neighbors next door, Paul and Lillian House (Adler and Lynn Cohen). The next day, the Liptons come back from the opera to see that Lillian House has had a heart attack, and died. They are in slight grief, until Carol starts noticing that Paul is too "perky" for a widower. She and family friend Ted (Alda), who happens to be a recent divorcee that is also in love with Carol, start investigating the life of Paul House, with Larry growing increasingly scared of his wife. Soon after, Carol draws writer Marcia Fox (Huston), a client of book editor Larry into the mix as well. The whole thing ends in a preposterous ending, with crazy plot twist after plot twist.

The film is quite erratic. It works best when it sticks to the basic story of these people, who are absolutely neurotic, and their fascination with this elderly man, who seems to be very, very nice. When it doesn't work is when Allen feels the need to be serious and explore human relationships. Sure, the flirting between Ted, Carol, Larry, and Marcia is funny, but does it have to go to the point where couples have to break up? Whatever happened to comedy? One wishes that Allen wasn't so serious, in that he wouldn't have to make something so refreshingly light seem so serious when Carol threatens to leave Larry for good. Allen could have stopped at the painfully funny scenes of the couple yelling at each other over their flirtations.The comedic sequences, which comprises the vast majority of the film, are downright hysterical. There are so many funny scenes in this movie I can't even count them all. It's written beautifully, with Allen providing enough lines in all the conversations that are just too much.

This is a very talky film, but so much of it is hilarious that I don't really care. Everything unfolds quite nicely until the end, when Allen's relationships begin to falter. Until that, this is a funny, light, sometimes morbid piece that truly does work. What pushes it along are the performances, all of which are exquisite. Keaton is marvelous, and a tad more neurotic than the bumbling Allen, who plays the role he has defined again. Alda is truly hysterical, and Huston shows up with just enough exotic panache to add even more insanity to this piece. These are four incredibly screwed up people, people that are just too much. In the end, the whole thing is a little too much. It's got a little too much preposterous insanity, especially with the ridiculously staged ending, which is nevertheless damned funny, as is the film. Is it erratic and uneven? Yeah, probably. But it's still got so many comedic touches that I couldn't help but smile. It's a light farcical spoof on sleuth movies, and it works so much that the end can be forgiven, as can Allen's serious touches. Ignore that stuff, and you have a very entertaining, very amusing film for all ages, something Woody Allen hadn't produced in a while. For all its eccentricities, MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY gave me a smile from ear to ear.

RATING: *** out of ****