**Spoiler Alert**
Director: Woody Allen/Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Parker Posey, Ethan Phillips and Jamie Blackley
A philosophy professor; newly arrived on campus, is having an existential crisis, which is compounded by writer's block. He has no wife, no family and has an unkempt, defeated look about him. A flask is never out of arm's reach and his need for it is almost reflexive. His arrival on campus creates something of a stir as students and faculty alike speculate about his past and his reasons for accepting a position at their school.
Other professors find he has little taste for the faculty's company and only a little more for his students, who he mostly regards as disappointments. A romance with a female chemistry professor, whose marriage is less than stable, begins desultorily and worse still, impotence makes an embarrassing incursion into his love-life. Uninspired and vaguely unhappy, the professor's life changes in dramatic fashion when he strikes up a friendship with a young, beautiful student who in time falls in love with him. The professor resists; aware of her serious relationship with a fellow student. Feeling threatened by the young student, the chemistry professor questions him constantly about his relationship with whom she regards as her competition and fails to be convinced the relationship is purely platonic.
Though the the professor resists the student declaration of love, he finds her charm, intelligence and beauty help abrade his objections to being with her.
During a lunch at a diner, the student and the professor overhear a conversation in an adjacent booth. The patrons talk about a mother who has been denied custody of her children and how her unjust situation is in part the fault of an unconscionable judge, who has consigned her to emotional and psychological torments. Hearing about the woman's sad story, the professor is galvanized into action. Fueled partly by existential philosophy and indirectly by Camus' The Stranger, the professor hatches a plot to murder the judge. Feeling the act to be a moral absolute, the professor's proactive agenda turns theory into action as he sets about plotting the murder.
The story is Woody Allen's new film Irrational Man and the characters are beautifully played by Joaquin Phoenix as the existentially-challenged professor named Abe, Parker Posey as the unfulfilled chemistry professor Rita, who is intent on running away with Abe and Emma Stone, who plays Jill; the student whose love for Abe ultimately assumes tragic proportions.
Murder plots are nothing new to Woody's films. The narrative device can be found in Crimes and Misdemeanors, Manhattan Murder Mystery and Match Point but though the murders in said films are mostly motivated by passion, Abe's is inspired by more abstract, philosophical concerns.
It isn't clear from the trailer if Woody's new film is comedy or drama or both but it seems clear that Irrational Man is serious business, though it hardly feels that way for most of the film. The film's tone is hardly comic, but is so devoid of gravitas I wondered if Woody were putting us on.
However one feels about a plot that stretches plausibility like chewing gum, Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone and Parker Posey bring their best to their respective roles and make a story more compelling than it has a right to be.
Abe's murder weapon of choice is cyanide. To secure the lethal chemical, he steals Rita's key to her chemical storage closet and when no one is around, he sneaks in and locates it on her shelf. It seems ludicrously convenient that Rita happens to be a chemistry teacher. While he is busy measuring out the cyanide, a student enters the office. Abe manages to explain his business in the closet, which satisfies the student's curiosity, though it may hardly satisfy the audience's. It was certainly eye-rolling to me. A philosophy professor helping himself to chemicals doesn't seem spectacularly peculiar to the student?
Abe's decision to kill the judge becomes a galvanizing agent in his life. He finds his impotence cured and a renewed interest in living life fully though it becomes complicated when he relents to Jill's amorous entreaties.
With careful planning, Abe is able to carry out the act but and days later, after hearing of the judges death, he also learns Rita has been floating a rumor (in jest) that he may be the killer. Jill and Abe speculate on the killer's identity and motives and in time, she begins to also suspect he may be the killer. An alibi he gives Jill fails to convince her and before long, he admits to the crime. Jill is repulsed by his act and threatens to turn him into the police after another man is charged with the crime. Abe begs Jill to refrain from turning him in, hoping the police will clear the innocent man of the crime. She reluctantly agrees. What occurs after is hardly surprising, given Abe's reluctance to go to jail and his philosophical justifications for the murder. During the film's climactic moment, a prize Abe had won for Jill earlier in the film at an amusement park takes on a larger, almost absurd significance.
Given Woody Allen's 21st Century output, I didn't expect much from his new film. His films now tend to miss more than hit but Irrational Man does both. The performances manage to (mostly) rescue the story from its unconvincing premise. It is all worth a gander but it won't encourage a second viewing. Everything about it seems lifeless, as if Woody's heart were on a sabbatical.
Maybe his next film will have the power of Blue Jasmine; a film that proved he can still summon the magic when inspired. Here it eluded him. Try again, Woody.
