Irrational Man

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Movie
German title Irrational Man
Original title Irrational Man
Irrational Man Logo.jpg
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2015
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Woody Allen
script Woody Allen
production Letty Aronson ,
Stephen Tenenbaum ,
Edward Walson
camera Darius Khondji
cut Alisa Lepselter
occupation
Emma Stone, Woody Allen and Parker Posey at the launch of the film at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival

Irrational Man is an American film comedy of Woody Allen from the year 2015 . It premiered out of competition on May 15, 2015 at the Cannes International Film Festival . The film opened in US cinemas on July 17, 2015. It opened in cinemas in Austria on November 13, 2015, and two days later in Germany.

action

The film begins with the arrival of the famous philosophy professor Abe Lucas on the campus of the fictional Braylin College in Newport . Abe is in an existential crisis. The former crisis worker and idealist is tormented by doubts about the meaningfulness of his work and his life. His status as a legend in his subject soon leads to attempts to get closer by Rita Richards, a colleague, and to an initially platonic friendship with Jill Pollard, a philosophy student.

Abe and Jill overheard in a restaurant how a mother is about to lose custody of her children by a corrupt judge . Abe then decides to kill the judge and give his life new meaning through this morally valuable act. Abe steals cyanide from the college's laboratory, poisoning the orange juice the judge uses to drink while jogging. The judge dies as expected.

As a result, Abe thrives because he sees meaning in his life again. He gets involved in a relationship with Jill, who breaks up with her long-term boyfriend Roy. Over time, however, Jill begins to suspect Abe of the murder and eventually gets him to admit what he did to her. When the police suspect an innocent man has committed the crime, Jill demands that Abe face the police, otherwise they would report him. The latter apparently accepts it, but is in truth not ready to give up his newly blossomed life. He tries to push his girlfriend into the shaft of an elevator that he has manipulated, but slips in the fight with the fiercely defending Jill and dies himself.

Reviews

In the Spiegel it was said that the film was "implausible as a thriller, absurd as a love story and completely uncomfortable as a comedy". For Woody Allen it will be "time for another masterpiece".

Julia Dettke wrote of Allen's “narrative poison cabinet” in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung . If the protagonist Abe Lucas, the “megalomaniac cynic”, is so much more personable than all the other characters, this must be due to a secret ingredient from that poison cabinet.

The Nordwest-Zeitung spoke of an “exciting showdown”, describing the film as a stylish old work and one of the “best Allen films of the past few years”, but the verbal battles and bon motes “no longer looked as polished as they used to be”.

Jan Schulz-Ojala from Tagesspiegel judged the film to be “actually comedic” . The "sub-complex dramaturgy about the life needs of a terrifyingly uninteresting hero" soon gets on my nerves. The gags are sparse, "whether in dialogues or depending on the situation". Nevertheless, the reviewer sums up: “But is that why you skip a Woody Allen film? No way."

Irrational Man is a "small and bad film", as Allen pushes it between his comedies every few years, Anke Westphal stated in the Berliner Zeitung . She compared the film to Match Point , Allen's first film he shot in London. This new work is also about “moral responsibility and guilt”. The greatest offense now lies in “acting unethically and even criminally solely out of a neurotic boredom of being under-challenged”. She concluded: “At the bitter end, all theory is gray. Don't tell anyone that age makes you milder. "

Ulrike Frick wrote for Münchner Merkur that the film enchants in its best moments with its “elegant weightlessness” . Innovations may look different, but the film is undoubtedly “more original and inspired than Allen's recent productions”.

For Michael Pekler from Standard (Vienna), Allen speculates in the comedy "with relish about whether a murder can save a broken life". He used the idea of ​​a perfect murder "for a satirical morality".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Approval for Irrational Man . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2015 (PDF; test number: 155 173 K).
  2. ↑ Irrational Man, Cannes Film Festival website , accessed August 18, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Irrational Man": The bad word and the good deed . In: Der Standard online from November 11, 2015, accessed on November 13, 2015
  4. ^ Theory and madness . In: Der Spiegel 46/2015 of November 11, 2015, p. 139.
  5. ↑ Julia Dettke: Reason doesn't make you happy either . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, November 8, 2015, p. 48.
  6. ↑ When the psycho-Prof with the student ... . Nordwest-Zeitung online, November 8, 2015, accessed November 9, 2015.
  7. ↑ Jan Schulz-Ojala: Professor Flachmann . In: Der Tagesspiegel online from November 11, 2015, accessed on November 12, 2015.
  8. ↑ Anke Westphal: "Fear is the frenzy of freedom" . In: Berliner Zeitung online from November 10, 2015, accessed on November 12, 2015.
  9. ↑ Ulrike Frick: Woody Allen's new film: "Irrational Man" . In: Münchner Merkur online from November 12, 2015, accessed on November 12, 2015
  10. ↑ Michael Pekler: "Irrational Man": The bad word and the good deed . In: Der Standard online from November 11, 2015, accessed on November 13, 2015