Irrational Man (2015) Review

Lucas Versantvoort / 26 Aug 2015

Another year, another Woody Allen film. I'm not the most avid Allen fanatic, so you'll have to take my opinion with a pinch of salt. I skipped last year's Magic in the Moonlight, so the last Allen film I watched was Blue Jasmine. Although Irrational Man is a cut above that cinematic train wreck, I'm still unsure what to think of it.

Professor Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) is a new Philosophy professor at Braylin College in New England. All the students and teachers hotly anticipate his arrival, curious to see if the rumors about this mysterious new figure are reflected in his looks and personality. This includes student Jill Pollard (Emma Stone). He arrives, all depressed, sick of life, and talks about Kant, moral imperatives, truth, lies, etc. He also says much of philosophy is verbal masturbation. He develops a bond with Jill and they eventually overhear a woman sitting in a diner with her friends, crying over the fact her no-good ex-husband will probably get custody of her kids due to a rotten judge. Suddenly, Abe has an idea. He'll rid the world of the judge, so the mother has a fair chance of getting custody of her children. Feeling confident his plan is morally right, his existential crisis takes a backseat to his newfound joy in life. But will he succeed? And if he does, what then?

If Irrational Man has a central flaw, it's undoubtedly the opening 20-30 minutes or so, when everything and everyone has to be introduced. It's so painfully boring watching Allen set up the major themes of the film. 'Gee, I wonder if the content of Abe's lectures will be reflected in the rest of the story?' Also, it's so obvious that Jill will have an affair with Abe (even though she has a boyfriend), I just wanted them to get together already, so the predictable part would be over. 

Once all these preparations have been made, however, the film's actually quite interesting and fun, probably more fun than interesting in the end. Watching him lecture on moral imperatives and so on, only for him to consider killing a human being 'morally justifiable' is pretty funny. One moment he's paraphrasing Kant, about a world completely without lies, the next he's lying to Jill. 

One of the best things about Irrational Man is the emotional distance with which Allen films the entire thing. It's basically a ridiculous tragicomedy about a depressed philosophy professor committing murder with a sense of righteousness who's struck down by fate (or was it chance?). Although this way of filming makes it harder to feel drawn to any of these characters (despite the actors' best efforts and Allen's use of voice-overs), it ultimately makes for a funnier film, especially in retrospect. If only I could say the same for the actual jokes...

And that's how I'd sum up my feelings toward Irrational Man: a bit too emotionally distant to completely enjoy, but an enjoyable tragicomedy nonetheless.