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Joaquin Phoenix looks quite rational here
C+For his annual exercise in film making, Woody Allen revisits one of his more intriguing themes, a look at crime and punishment through the eyes of a highly intelligent and ethically aware man. At least, Allen revisits that theme in the second, and much better, half of Irrational Man. Unfortunately, before viewers have the slightest inkling of any criminal activity, they must endure over a half hour of Joaquin Phoenix at his most morose.
Phoenix stars in Irrational Man as Abe Lucas, a brilliant but burned out philosophy professor at a prestigious eastern college. When Abe overhears a conversation about a vindictive judge, however, he discovers a new purpose in his life, murdering the judge. Abe becomes invigorated, and both the women in his life, faculty wife Rita (Parker Posey) and student Jill (Emma Stone) quickly take notice. Although the planning of the crime goes well, Abe soon discovers that murder results in unforeseen legal and ethical complications.
If Allen could have figured a way to begin Irrational Man at the point Abe finds his inspiration, the movie could have been one of Allen’s better ones. Because, like Abe, Allen finds his inspiration at this moment in Irrational Man. In typical noir fashion, Abe finds himself increasingly entrapped by his scheming, but in a most unexpected way, leading to a classic dark comic ending. Along the way, Allen has fun having Abe and Jill struggle with the same ethical questions Abe posed as hypotheticals to his students early in the movie. Before that point, though, we get Allen and Phoenix at their most annoying. Allen may think that having two intelligent women fall all over themselves fawning over a guy who actually plays Russian roulette at a party is funny, but few other viewers will. Abe is not amusing, realistic, or interesting to anyone except Allen. Plus, Allen adopts a distracting device of having both Abe and Jill serve as voiceover narrators at different points in the movie. Irrational Man proves to be an irrational, inconsistent movie that will alienate viewers well before it actually entertains them.
Continue reading on Irrational Man: Mini-review
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