Manhattan (1979) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Woody Allen

Starring:  Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep, Michael Murphy

Manhattan itself is as much a co-star in Woody Allen's 1979 black and white comedy as any of the actors.     It is the backdrop of Allen's romantic comedy, which covers the romantic tribulations of Isaac Davis (Allen).     The city is vibrant, alive, and scenic, yet it does not overtake the human comedy Allen evokes.     His Isaac Davis is not a million miles removed from his screen persona, but in each film he manages to tweak it enough to make it unique and special.     He is forever at war with himself over what his heart wants vs. what his head tells him to do.    The heart usually wins, but the head doesn't go down without a fight.    Not in Woody Allen's world.

Isaac is a 42- year-old divorced comedy writer who hates his job, but hey it pays the bills.     He has two alimonies and child support payments.     One of his alimony checks goes to his lesbian ex-wife Jill (Streep), who is writing a tell-all book about her life with Isaac.     It is not flattering.     She even promises to bring up the time when Isaac nearly ran over her lover with his car.     He insists it was accidental.    Jill retorts, "What would Freud say?"

Isaac's relationship with a 17-year old student named Tracy (Hemingway-in an Oscar-nominated role) foreshadows Allen's own headline-grabbing controversy involving his now-wife Soon-Yi Previn.     Tracy is at least not the daughter of Isaac's girlfriend, but still 17 is 17.      

Tracy innocently and sweetly idealizes Isaac, who enjoys spending time with her but wonders aloud why he is in the relationship.     He slowly tries to exit it by telling her to go to London when she is awarded a scholarship there.     ("You will think of me as a fond memory.")     His head tells him to let her go, but his heart may feel differently.   

Further complicating Isaac's troubled love life is his friendship with his best friend's mistress which turns into a sexual one.    She is Mary (Keaton), an intellectual who at first infuriates Isaac with her observations.    ("I'm from Philadelphia, we don't cheat on each other there.")     Soon he finds himself drawn to her, despite her relationship with his married best friend Yale (Murphy).     Perhaps he likes her because she isn't Tracy and doesn't cause him much internal conflict.   

Yale and Mary soon split up, but Yale soon finds he misses Mary, much like Isaac soon realizes he misses Tracy.     It is a classic case of wanting someone more after she's gone.    Isaac achieves clarity once Tracy has moved on with her life and he is left to yearn once more.     Maybe he likes it that way.    He can not see a conceivable future with Tracy because he's 42 and she is jailbait.    He is correct to think that, but he can not stop himself from feeling for her anyway.    

Manhattan expounds on themes which Allen masterfully handled in Annie Hall (1977), which won Allen two of his four Oscars over his long career.     There are plenty of wonderful Allen-isms thrown in for good measure.     When he hears a mysterious loud noise in his apartment, he says, "I'm living with rats with bongos and a giant frog."     This line reminds me of his classic line in Annie Hall when he describes a "lobster as big as a Buick".     The dialogue veers too often early on into intellectual-speak in which one needs a degree in philosophy to understand, but Allen soon brings the material to where it is most comfortable for us.     We have all felt that way Allen does about our relationships.     He is simply able to communicate them in a funnier way.     If he didn't, some of his comedies would be borderline tragedies.