Should be called ‘Illogical Plot’. Woody Allen writes and directs this film that centers around a teacher-student relationship at a Boston college. When a burned-out, brilliant professor (Joaquin Phoenix) takes a job at a small college, everyone there is abuzz. He becomes involved with a teacher (Parker Posey) as well as a precocious student (Emma Stone), but it takes a dramatic, and monumental act to turn his life around and make him see the world through a much wider and more appreciative perspective. ‘Irrational Man’ is a film that i only caught the trailer to once, and to go into the film blindfolded makes you appreciate even more how ridiculous it is. What little i knew about this film, told me that it was a troublesome film about a teacher who falls in love with his student. BOY WAS I WRONG. The film saunters through at a snail like pace when it finally reveals it’s true intentions; Phoenix must commit a murder of a total stranger to restore meaning to his life. The choice and even the result of the death feels like an afterthought famous for Allen films. The movie is riddled in clouded dialogue, as well as some of the very worst personalities that i have ever seen. Phoenix is a solid Hollywood A-lister, but in this movie, he feels like his character in the effect that he couldn’t care less. He too searches for real meaning on why he took this project, with the exception of working with one of Hollywood’s most legendary writers. Anyone who knows me, knows i love everything about Emma Stone. Well, this film managed to make me hate her. The character she portrays is so unlikeable and against any kind of spoiled side that we have ever seen from her. It’s nice to take risks, but this character is so one dimensional, and her moves are easily choreographed throughout the film that she will eventually fall for Phoenix. If the movie stayed at that kind of predictable offering, i could’ve appreciated it enough because maybe these two will be made better by film’s end. Instead, both characters are mere shadows of what they were 92 minutes prior, and we don’t feel any better about the investment we have given them during such a time. If the film has any good to it, it’s in the camera shots and how beautifully styled the movie’s backgrounds are. If there is one thing Allen will always do right, it’s that he knows how to point a camera. I just wish his actors didn’t desire more with my overall interest in the film. The third act is where the film gathers any kind of momentum down hill, but it soon takes a nosedive in absolute absurdity with logical choices. It’s so bad that i struggle even as i write this to properly classify what kind of movie tone-wise this was. ‘Irrational Man’ is perhaps genius in the fact that it says everything you need to know about the film in the title. It’s irrational to spend time with these people, to find anything appreciative about this film even with a love for Woody Allen, or even irrational to spend a dollar to rent this at RedBox. It’s pretentious dribbel at it’s finest.

3/10