Manhattan Murder Mystery

Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) begins with a married couple deciding their neighbours have committed a murder. Larry and Carol meet an elderly couple in the corridor. A few days later the wife dies of a heart attack. Carol finds the husband's behaviour odd and starts investigating. Larry has no interest and thinks she has lost her mind. The real subject is not murder but marriage. Carol's excitement comes from a gap in her life; Larry's indifference from another one. Chasing a killing, they are actually going through their marriage. The screenplay goes back to Annie Hall. Allen and Marshall Brickman had written this mystery for that film's first draft; it was cut, and sixteen years later became its own film. Diane Keaton plays Carol. The part was to have gone to Mia Farrow; after Allen and Farrow separated, Keaton took it. It is among the last films Keaton and Allen made together. The cinema sequence at the end is an open salute to Orson Welles's The Lady from Shanghai. The handheld camera is used loosely on purpose and some scenes wobble. It is one of Allen's lightest and most enjoyable films, with no large claim to make. It runs 104 minutes. Good for: light mystery, Allen's comedy, and New York. Less good for: the mystery is simple and the characters never stop talking.