Direction: Woody Allen
Country: USA
Once heralded as an inventive filmmaker, Woody Allen now definitely needs a break. It’s been a while since the prolific American director presented something original and fully consistent.
A Rainy Day in New York is another New York-inspired trifle, whose plot is not as shiny as its images. Made of coincidences, encounters, and imbroglios, the story is excessively fabricated to convince. Moreover, the film was discarded by its distributor, Amazon Studios, after Allen’s name has been involved in a sexual assault allegation and most of the actors had given their salaries to anti-harassment organizations.
Apart from the controversy, Allen pictured a young couple arriving in New York to spend an agitated weekend. He is Gatsby Wells (Timothée Chalamet), a clever New Yorker who wins at poker and smokes like a chimney. She is Ashleigh Enright (Elle Fanning), a not-very-bright journalism student from Tucson, Arizona, who gets hysterical with the opportunity to interview Roland Pollard (Liev Schreiber), an uninteresting indie filmmaker. While Gatsby ends up turning down the advances of a childhood friend, and now actress, Shannon Tyrell (Selena Gomez is just way out of line here), Ashleigh bumps into the celebrated actor Francisco Vega (Diego Luna), to whom she literally denies to have a boyfriend.
The immature A Rainy in New York drags with boring developments that only make the film look duller and duller. Even if you’re into romantic comedies, you'll find a too contrived plot, incapable to provide a satisfying experience. The sharp and glowing cinematography by Italian Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now; Last Tango in Paris) seems to be one of the few things that escape banality.
