Tashtago

In Manhattan Murder Mystery , Woodrow Allen (auteur) tries to re-make Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. Unfortunately Woody is no Hitchcock. Despite a charming cast, and some good, often funny dialogue Mr . Allen's direction gets in the way. He's too busy being cleaver with the camera peering over flower plots. A particularly teeth grinding example is when Woody and Diane Keaton's characters discuss the possible murder of the wife. They walk around the entire circumference of a fountain. Dialogue is heard, but for a good half of the scene neither main character is on camera. There is no other major or minor director who would have filmed a scene like this without either character in view. I don't just want to hear dialogue . I want to see the people in the scene who are portraying the characters I am supposedly interested in. So much of Allen's direction is about look how cleaver I am at the expense of seeing a performance with actors. It drove me nuts. Too bad because I think there is a funny movie hidden behind that statue in the middle of a fountain we're forced to watch. And don't tell me it's some kind of Bergman like symbolism. t