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Manhattan
Metascore
82 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 9 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
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  1. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    100
    Deft comedy set in a neurotic town. People may argue about the relative merits of Annie Hall vis-a-vis Manhattan, which is a better and more fully realized film. By this time Allen had forsworn the glib one-liner and spent more time developing well-rounded characters.
  2. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    100
    If Manhattan was only a romantic comedy, it would be a very good one, but the fact that the movie has so much more ambition than the "average" entry into the genre makes it an extraordinary example of the fusion of entertainment and art. This is Allen in peak form, deftly mastering and combining the diverse threads of romance, drama, and comedy - and all against a black-and-white backdrop that makes us wonder why color is such a coveted characteristic in modern motion pictures.
  3. Empire
    Reviewed by: David Parkinson
    100
    One of Woody's most aesthetically gorgeous films as well as his classic love-hate letter to the city of his soul.
  4. Time
    Reviewed by: Vincent Canby
    90
    What happens is not the substance of Manhattan as much as how it happens. The movie is full of moments that are uproariously funny and others that are sometimes shattering for the degree in which they evoke civilized desolation.
  5. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    this is a very good movie. Woody Allen is ... Woody, sublimely. Diane Keaton gives us a fresh and nicely edged New York intellectual. And Mariel Hemingway deserves some kind of special award for what's in some ways the most difficult role in the film.
  6. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Jay Scott
    88
    Never before has Allen been able to integrate comedy and pathos as deftly as he does in Manhattan. [28 Apr 1979, p. 17]
    All this critic's reviews
  7. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Julie Salamon
    80
    With his co-writer, Randy Sue Coburn, and composer Mark Isham, director Alan Rudolph has created a sense of time and place that authentically conveys what it might have been like when writers were celebrities and special effects came from words. [10 Jan 1995, p.A18]
    All this critic's reviews
  8. Variety
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    70
    Woody Allen uses New York City as a backdrop for the familiar story of the successful but neurotic urban over-achievers whose relationships always seem to end prematurely. The film is just as much about how wonderful a place the city is to live in as it is about the elusive search for love.
  9. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Dave Kehr
    60
    The script is funny and observant, full of shocks of recognition, but for all his progress as a writer, Allen's direction remains disconcertingly amateurish. Still, it remains perhaps the only film in which Allen has been able to successfully imagine a personality other than his own.
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User Reviews

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User Score
8.9 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 16 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. JMH
    10
    Allen's best film. Among the standouts of American cinema in the post-studio era. Virtually perfect. The film's lifted to extraordinary heights by, among other things, a brilliant screenplay, careful direction, spectacular cinematography, and amazing performances from (particularly) Allen, Keaton, and Hemingway. There's more beneath the (glittering) surface of "Manhattan" than any Allen film. At the center of it all is a captivating tension between romantic ideals -- the drive to satisfy them, and the hypocritical demand that others do the same -- and something of far less starry-eyed allure -- reality. This tension is achieved in multiple, varied ways within the film. From the disconnect between the impeccable look of the film and the messes played out by the characters on screen, to the contrast between one character's surprisingly precocious authenticity and the world of disingenuous posturing that infects the remaining characters. The question at the end of "Manhattan," when revelation may find reality triumphing over romanticism, and taking on a more enduring, humane, and compassionate value of its own, is whether enlightenment (if that's what is) has come too late.… Full Review »
  2. Phil_Chatzikos
    10
    Maybe Allen's best movie ever, the black-and-white Manhattan is an incredible study on the human relationships presented with a romantic, funny way. Rhapsody in blue is just amazing as the background of the beautiful, yet bittersweet picture of New York that we get here. The movie is about a 42 year old man, who has a relationship with a 17 year old girl and falls in love with his friend's ex-mistress. But is much more than this. It's a movie about you and me. An ode to the simplicity and the complex of our relationships .… Full Review »
  3. claw01
    10
    Beautiful and witty, Manhattan is a wonderful work of cinema. Then again, I am a big fan of Woody Allen himself, but that aside the choice of black and white photography helps compliment and boost the film itself. While Annie Hall maybe be slightly more humorous, Manhattan is more serious in its prose and provides a nice balance between the comic and the dramatic. What I find simply wonderful about this film and many others of Allen's is their ability to read like books, with great characters that are deep and realistic rather than stiff and cliché. This movie is just simply a masterpiece.… Full Review »
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