Irrational Man is a film which is both written and directed by Woody Allen who many would know as the director of Blue Jasmine (2013) or Match Point (2005). Irrational Man stars Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone and it follows the story of tortured philosophy professor who finds his reason for living by doing something completely irrational. Irrational Man has a run time of 94 minutes.
Irrational Man Trailer
Irrational Man Review
Irrational Man is one of the most fun and most delightful films to be released so far this year. Woody Allen provides us with some very interesting characters to watch in this film and they’re funny too. We follow this philosophy professor Abe ( Joaquin Phoenix), who arrives at a new school to teach some students philosophy. He’s interesting because he has no reason to really live and is completely bored with almost every scenario that he encounters, that is until he meets Emma Stone’s character Jill, she’s one of his students. It’s only when he is out with her, that he thinks of something entirely new to do and it’s not what you might expect. In fact it’s an incredibly irrational decision, but in doing it he gains a type of happiness he hasn’t had in year’s.
Irrational Man Scene: “Randomness and Chance”
Both Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix both provide us with some incredibly entertaining performances and the dialogue written by Woody Allen really helped to bring out both their characters and their performances on screen. Both actors have great chemistry with each other and were cast perfectly for their roles, it was nothing but a joy to see them perform.
The pacing of Irrational Man is fairly quick and the dialogue is witty, with a run time of just over 90 minutes things go by quite fast. Woody Allen has done well with this short run time as the story does not seem stretched out or too short. We are introduced to the characters early on, we slowly learn who they are and what motivates them and we see these characters change throughout the film based on the actions they have taken which leaves us with fairly developed characters by the end. Woody Allen is quite known for being a great character writer and in amongst a slew of poorly written two dimensional characters on film this year, Irrational Man was a refreshing experience.
This is likely not going to be a film that everyone will love, it’s something that’s very dialogue heavy and requires people to actually pay attention. Those who go into things always expecting big action sequences, a couple of set pieces and cheesy one liners won’t get what they want out of Irrational Man. But those who love a good short story, some great acting and might even be Woody Allen film fans, will likely get a lot of enjoyment out of Irrational Man.
Irrational Man is a delightful film to watch and it will put a smile on your face from the beginning until the end. The characterisation is so well written and the characters are so well acted by Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone that the film is nothing short of enjoyable. Woody Allen has created a very enjoyable film with Irrational Man and it’s one that I highly recommend watching as soon as you can.
