I would presume there are two types of people in the world – those who love and admire the works of Woody Allen, and those who don’t (for example, me). I must admit I’ve had high expectations for the movie due to the cast, which boasts Joaquin Phoenix (Abe Lucas) and Emma Stone (Jill Pollard). The suggested genre of ‘mystery’ definitely piqued my interest as well but halfway into the movie I was close to falling asleep (time passed so slowly). The title was very apt though, not to mention straightforward.
Irrational Man talks about Abe Lucas, a tormented philosophy professor who is unable to find joy in life until he begins plotting the murder of another (committing an existential act).
He is introduced as a man who finds life meaningless and dim, and nothing can perk him up – neither a relationship or a sexual act can help him. Upon arriving to teach at a small town college, he immediately gets involved with two women, Rita Richards (Parker Posey) and Jill Pollard.
Well, the women are the proactive ones so that is something different from the social stereotypes. Parker (a science professor) is a miserable married women who wants to be whisked away to a foreign land with a man who will pamper and take care of her. Jill is Abe’s best student, who gradually becomes his closest friend and their relationship develops into something more than that in the later part of the movie.
Older man, younger woman. It really depends on personal beliefs and values if it should be accepted but to call it “love” between a person who is old enough to be your dad is way too much for me. Then again, this isn’t the first of its kind in an Woody Allen production.
It isn’t until Abe and Jill overhear a stranger’s conversation that the fire in Abe is ignited for him to embrace life to the fullest through “helping” the misjudged. Think Robin Hood who steals from the rich to give to the poor.
Abe wishes to take into his own hands to kill someone to help the victim, and he thinks it is alright because well, bad people deserve to die. Little does he realise that there are repercussions to his actions that will link the crime back to him. He starts to enjoy life, and notices that the littlest things affect a person’s mood and feelings – things like breakfast choices to making love.
I do not wish to dictate the entire story but you can probably piece the puzzle together to get the conclusion even without catching the movie. Throughout the movie, I was waiting for the part where there will be some form of suspense or humour (there was a little dark humour which barely lasted for a minute), but nothing came to it. The scenes were not smoothly transited, and then again I guess it doesn’t really matter as there were limited locations within the movie but it would have been a slightly more pleasant experience.
Would I catch another Woody Allen production again? Probably not.
Here’s the trailer:
