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Rating: Carol Lipton: "This is the most exciting thing that has happened in our marriage!"
Larry Lipton: "Yes, too exciting! I don’t need it. I like things like fishing, Father’s Day, you know, when we saw Bing Crosby on Fifth Avenue. I don’t need a murder to spice up my life."
In 1993, after the disastrous separation from Mia Farrow, Woody Allen, helped by Marshall Brickman in crafting the screenplay, created "Manhattan Murder Mystery," a new small and elegant gem in his filmography. To recover from the end of his marriage, he relied on his long-time friend, Diane Keaton, who is probably the person who knows him best; it’s no coincidence that Allen describes their relationship as a total synergy of ideas and passions. This time Woody tells us a mystery, or rather a comedy that borders on Thriller and tragedy. However, the tones are very different from those of "Crimes and Misdemeanors" and the future "Match Point"; in this film, Allen plays a lot and always remains rather light, it is one of those typical transition films between one phase and another of his career that, however, this time assumes very particular characteristics that lift it from the definition of "minor film."
Allen once again brings us a microcosm, the middle class of New York, photographed almost in a pre-retirement relaxation period. The Lipton couple, Larry (Allen) and Carol (Keaton), now have a son at university (Zach Braff), and the wife, in particular, suffers from the monotony and boredom that life in her condo offers. Thus, the death of the neighbor, apparently from natural causes, tickles Carol’s investigative instinct, and she embarks on a personal investigation, also involving poor Larry and Ted (Alan Alda), her friend and old admirer.
Shot with a frenetic and very fast style, "Manhattan Murder Mystery" has a very intense pace, the shots, the dialogues are fast-paced and sometimes very intricate, and it’s difficult to keep up with all the characters when they act collectively. Typical of Allen’s cinema is the meticulous care of the interactions between his actors, known for directing ensemble casts and making acting a unified whole, his intent is to depict reality as it unfolds, one of the great virtues of this film is indeed the spontaneity of the situations described and the almost raw concreteness of the direction. The plot then is unpredictable and difficult to solve, a full-fledged mystery seasoned with a series of jokes (You know, I can’t listen to too much Wagner... I already feel the urge to invade Poland!) and scenes (the phone call with the recorders is phenomenal) that are memorable.
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