Woody Allen has made some of the greatest comedy films of all time, regardless of his few failures. One of his most towering achievements in Manhattan, a film that I have loved for a very long time, but only after watching it upon my return to the titular city did my opinion of this magnificent film sky-rocket to unholy areas of adoration. It is a complex, beautifully funny and brilliantly philosophical comedy that represents Allen at his most profound, and goes well with some of his most deep and meaningful films of the era, and one can come to the conclusion that no one makes movies like Woody Allen because he is truly a masterful filmmaker and a great contributor to the cinematic landscape as it stands today.

In Manhattan, Allen plays a character very similar to himself (as is the case in many of his films), this time named Isaac Mortimer Davis, a writer living in New York City, trying to navigate his descent into middle-age, and dealing with the romantic problems that plague his existence, such as his lesbian ex-wife Jill (Meryl Streep) writing a tell-all memoir about their marriage, his 17-year-old girlfriend Tracy (Mariel Hemingway) and the delightful and intelligent Mary (Diane Keaton), who brings the meaning into Isaac’s life that he has been desperately yearning to find. He also has to come to terms with the fact that his best friend, the intellectual yuppie Yale Pollack (Michael Murphy) is also in love with Mary. However, this love-triangle just occurs in the background of Manhattan, a film far too preoccupied with weaving a philosophical tale out of its solidly reliable intellectual execution.

I mentioned it in my review for Love and Death, but Woody Allen is often just seen as being one of the great writer/directors of our time, with his acting not being forgotten, but not necessarily heralded as being anything masterful. While I do stand my belief that Love and Death was Allen’s finest moment in terms of an actor, Manhattan presents us with Allen in a far more serious light, showing him not as a foolish and child-like pseudo-intellectual, but rather as a man trying to come to terms with the difficulties in his life. It is still a very funny performance, and there are certainly a myriad of hilariously outrageous moments that come out of this film and Allen’s performance, but it is a far more mature performance, and while it may not hit the meaningful highs that his Alvy Singer in Annie Hall did, his performance as Isaac is a reliably complex and delicately detailed portrait of a normal (albeit neurotic) individual coming to terms with the future while looking towards the past. It is a beautifully nuanced performance, and just proves my theory that Allen is just as talented as an actor as he is a writer and director.

Two years prior to Manhattan, Diane Keaton scored her big breakthrough with Annie Hall, where Allen managed to put her on the map as a remarkable leading lady. Despite her notable performances in The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, as well as her hilarious turn in Love and Death, it was Annie Hall that forced everyone to take notice. I wouldn’t say she is nearly as good in Manhattan, and if I have to say something about the flaws of this film, it is that Keaton is just not given the attention she deserves – this film doesn’t know what it wants to be in terms of who the focus is – it is sold as a romantic comedy about Isaac and Mary, but she is often pushed into the background by an unforgiving restlessness to show Isaac’s plight as a middle-aged sad-sack. However, beyond all of this, there is a beautifully complex performance from Keaton, who is as relentlessly charming in Manhattan as she always is. She is truly one of our greatest screen actors and should be appreciated with undeniable enthusiasm.

Manhattan is a very special film for a particular reason – it serves to be a film about love. It is about a man struggling with love at a very peculiar age – the love of the past, the love of the present and the love of the future. He doesn’t know where his life is going to head, and he doesn’t truly know who his eventual longtime companion will be, other than it being someone that can satisfy him on a cerebral level (which would be Mary) or on a level that will make him feel youthful (which would be Tracy), thus causing an enormous rift in his conscience, where he tries to make up his mind as to where his heart truly lays. Manhattan is a film that features Allen’s most scathing remarks on the nature of society, where youthfulness and the beautification discourse is explored as something that pervades our society. In Manhattan, we can see a definitive element of the separation of romance from love, as Manhattan is a film about love, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it overly romantic, as it can be sometimes very callous in how it shows the superficiality of love. Isaac doesn’t end up happy, but he is content. It is an odd representation of romance and undoes what many films tried to convince audiences life was actually like.

However, the second kind of love this film represents is something far more profound, and what I didn’t initially understand upon my first few viewings of this film, but after experiencing what Allen portrays here, I understand it fully. Manhattan is a love-letter to New York City. It is a beautiful city, one of the most extraordinary places on Earth and a unique environment that has been home to some of the most profoundly brilliant films ever made. It is a city of over eight million stories, and throughout his career, Allen has shown audiences just a few through his own lens, and countless other filmmakers have taken on the giant of a city in their films, hoping to replicate what a unique place it is. Above everything else, Manhattan shows a particular view of New York City that may not be the most enveloping of the nature of the city and all of its quirks, but it does show many of the city’s most authentic quirks and beautiful cadences. There are few images as striking as the opening moments of this film, set to the now-iconic “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin, a where Allen starts to tell one of the most beautiful love stories ever set on film – whether that be the love of a woman or the love of the city is for the audience to decipher, but I’ll be damned if the main driving force behind this film wasn’t to serve as Allen paying tribute to a city that gave him his start, and one that he constantly returns to in his films as a source of inspiration. There could be a dozen films made every day about New York City, and not even after a century will we be able to have seen every aspect of this beautiful city, but as far as they go, Manhattan is one of the most extraordinary.

Precisely what makes the film so absolutely engrossing and unforgettable? Perhaps it is the fact that New York City has rarely looked this outstandingly beautiful – featuring some of the most gorgeous cinematography from Allen’s early films (shot in glorious black-and-white by Gordon Willis, one of the most reliable cinematographers to ever grace Hollywood) – there are some moments of deeply profound beauty, such as the iconic shot of Allen and Keaton looking at the Manhattan Bridge, or the sweeping beauty of the city in the opening moments of this film. Perhaps it is the storytelling, which features some truly deep conversations about the nature of existence. Unlike Love and Death, which over-stated itself as a philosophical comedy to the degree that it became a farce of sorts, Manhattan is far more serious at covering the themes of humanity and what it means to be alive. Allen really crafted an extraordinary film here, and whenever I doubt his talents, I remember that some of his films in his early output stand as giants amongst other films.

Manhattan is a magnificent film. Funny, heartbreaking and containing a keen sense of melancholy and nostalgia, it is a feverishly wonderful film that has great performances from its brilliant cast and a narrative that is deeply meaningful. More than anything, it serves as a reminder of the raw beauty of one of the greatest cities in the world, a place filled with extraordinary people, each with their own unique story. It is a tremendous film, and it stands amongst Woody Allen’s career highlights. It truly is an unbelievably lovely film and one that means so much to me, especially after spending time in the city and walking many of the same streets that this film shows. An unforgettable and wonderful comedy film, and one that history will remember fondly.