I Just Saw

Set mostly over 24 hours, A Rainy Day in New York is a romantic comedy starring Timothee Chalamet as the evocatively named Gatsby Welles, a gambler and gadabout who takes his girlfriend, student journalist Ashleigh (Elle Fanning), for a romantic time in the Big Apple. Both are, however, sidetracked by misadventures and temptations as rain pours down on the city. Complications include Selena Gomez as the spunky sister of Chalamet’s ex-girlfriend and Liev Schreiber as a tortured film director whom Ashleigh has been sent to interview.

The cinematography is lovely, as it always is in Allen’s films. He hires good people to work with and especially in his rom-coms makes sure to give everything a soft-focus, gently glowing feel, evocative of Old Hollywood in its deliberate staginess and fairy tale glamour.

The whole production, however, has a community theatre quality to it, like watching your friends and neighbours play through an old one-act show. I think the problem is that none of these characters talks like they’re living in 2019, even if they are played by Timothee Chalamet, Elle Fanning, et al. They talk like bohemian Liberal Arts students of the 1960s, or maybe an even older period. Well, that’s not quite right. They talk like a ’60s satirist’s idea of bohemian students.

Chalamet does a little better than Fanning in interpreting this material, or at least seeming natural with it. Chalamet is of course an extremely handsome young man, and he pulls off a certain eyes-half-closed, brooding charm, slightly reminiscent of a young Matt Dillon or Phoenix brother. 

Most of the performances, though, are stiff and awkward; you can almost see the actors waiting for each other to finish their lines, like marionettes left limp as the puppeteer grabs different sets of strings. Gomez comes out of it best (of the younger actors), but more just because she has the easiest role, as an irreverent young actress who isn’t required to seem too genuine at any time.

Fanning tries her hardest, bless her, but she can only seem so genuine when dressed up like Nancy Drew and forced to sputter phrases like “a mere youth!” like she’s a socialite in The House of Mirth as opposed to a 21st-century college student. Schreiber and Jude Law bring professional competency to their roles, adding a substance that isn’t really there in the writing.

The best scene in the movie involves Chalamet talking to his mother, played by Cherry Jones in the best performance (and character sketching) of the film as an older society woman with a secret. The exchange is genuinely compelling and touching. It also left me with the feeling that the film should have been about her and the story she tells. It is, nonetheless, an occasionally funny and very watchable film, pleasingly scored with piano music and shot with an eye for the city that could only come from Woody Allen.

A Rainy Day in New York is an example of Allen’s (very) late period, where he’s more just dusting off old material than turning out new. Diehard fans may enjoy A Rainy Day in New York, but everyone else would be well-advised to keep dry.