FilmSnobReviews

Title: Irrational Man
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Parker Posey
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins

What It Is: Abe Lucas (Phoenix) is a philosophy professor whose just moved to a small Rhode Island college. It is here where his reputation for being a depressed introvert who seemingly beds endless numbers of students follows him. After taking notice of one particularly intelligent student named Jill (Stone) rumor start to circulate about the two. Meanwhile, he is actually bedding the married Rita. When Jill and Abe overhear a woman’s plight regarding a corrupt judges decision to take her kids away from her Abe finally finds what he’s been looking for…inspiration.

What We Think: Woody Allen nowadays is so very hit and miss. Something like Blue Jasmine gets all the praise. While Magic in the Moonlight didn’t get the love I thought it deserved it is a bit better than this. This film struggles with pacing dearly. It isn’t that the pace is inconsistent it’s that it instead is just too slow to prevent boredom. I really enjoyed Joaquin Phoenix here and Emma Stone was charming as all hell. Their acting was pretty good, and one final note is the score. I found the score breezy and vibrate. It was almost necessary in order to not fall asleep.

Our Grade: C-, Damn you, Woody! You continue to make mediocre your new favorite color. I appreciate that he continues to re-use Emma Stone in his films as I believe her to be a terrific actress. I’m going to say this movie is one you can skip even if you’re a Woody Allen fan. There’s just nothing here to enjoy outside of the intelligent conversations that occur between characters. Lots of philosophy and existentialism. Allen really is on a light streak here and Midnight in Paris seems very long ago.