Irrational Man

Director: Woody Allen

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Jamie Blackley, Parker Posey, Joe Stapleton, Nancy Carroll

Running time: 95 minutes

Country: US

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Woody Allen’s latest film Irrational Man looks, at a glance, unoriginal and cliché. A supposedly brilliant philosophy professor, Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) arrives to teach at a college in New England and finds himself having an existential crisis. Jill (Emma Stone) is the admiring student and Professor Rita Richards (Parker Posey) is the unhappily married teacher lusting after him. Clichés galore already: a radical and intelligent professor wonders about the meaning of life, and two woman want him even though he is clearly bad news due to his obvious drinking problem and blasé attitude towards death.

Other predicable sub-plots include Lucas falling in love with one of the two women and finding meaning in life, or some experience that opens his eyes and allows him to understand why life is worth living. Though Allen chooses the latter, he manages a path which is brilliantly intriguing. While the experience allows Lucas to start living again, the experience in question is planning and executing the perfect murder.

Image: Warner Bros/Gravier Productions

Bordering on psychotic, Phoenix’s portrayal of a professor with a screw (or two) missing is more than convincing. He plays bored and uninspired well, caring little about how he is perceived whilst wearing shirts that are a little too tight. It really hits home when he plays Russian Roulette at a college party with an alarmingly casual attitude, quite rightly shocking Jill and leaving her justified in her constant claims that Lucas is fascinating, much to the chagrin of her perfect boyfriend.

 Bordering on psychotic, Phoenix’s portrayal of a professor with a screw (or two) missing is more than convincing. He plays bored and uninspired well, caring little about how he is perceived whilst wearing shirts that are a little too tight

When Lucas overhears a conversation that inspires him to commit a murder that will ultimately make the world a better place it’s somehow logical coming from him because of his warped state of mind (which the audience can fully attest to). Raising philosophical questions of morality, his positive outlook once he is occupied with planning the killing is sinister, but not in an overt way. The film hinges on the question of if killing can ever justified, Abe clearly thinking it can be. Is he unhinged or onto something? It leaves the audience which much food for thought; perhaps it should have been stylised (Ir)rational Man.

Image: Warner Bros/Gavier Productions

It’s a shame, then, that Rita isn’t fully fleshed out as a character and stays irritating, one dimensional and clingy. Happy enough to elope with Lucas to Spain, she could have made for a great part of the plot. Had she worked out Lucas had executed a murder and actually done something with the information (like confronting him with certainty), which she was fully capable of doing, there was scope for a punchier story.

Regardless, Irrational Man is an interesting and effective mishmash of suspense, thriller and comedy. Flirting with each of the genres, it doesn’t fall flat which must have been a difficult pitfall to avoid. In fact, rather than being an insipid, indecisive attempt at treading the boundary lines of genre, Allen’s latest work culminates to a heady and intriguing film. Surreal at times (the Russian Roulette episode in particular), the film is quirky and darkly comical yet also quite sinister. Murder is more blithe than horrific, unjustified, immoral or anything else in this tale. It means that, as a viewer, it befuddles and confuses – but in a good way.