Movie Review: A RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK by Woody Allen

A Rainy Day in New York is a 2019 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. It stars Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez, Jude Law, Diego Luna, and Liev Schreiber. The film follows the romantic exploits of a young college student (Chalamet) on a week-end trip in his hometown of New York City, trying to further bond with his college girlfriend (Fanning) while she's in the city to interview a famous film director (Schreiber).

Plot:

Gatsby Welles is a student at Yardley College and the son of wealthy New York City based parents. Yardley has no special appeal to him, though he continues to attend because of his girlfriend Ashleigh, who is a rich student from Tucson. Ashleigh is traveling into New York to interview filmmaker Roland Pollard for the college paper. Gatsby tags along to show Ashleigh around the city, planning romantic visits, in order to avoid his parents who are planning an Autumn Gala in the evening. Gatsby and Ashleigh arrive at an upscale hotel where Ashleigh is set to interview Pollard. When she goes to interview him, he invites her to a screening of his new film, which ruins her plans with Gatsby, much to his dismay he strolls alone through New York, and bumps into a student director friend who asks him to stand in for a missing actor in a test shot for a screen kiss. Gatsby is surprised the actress turns out to be the younger sister of a previous girlfriend. He enjoys the kiss but tells Chan he is involved with someone. They prepare for a second screen test kiss when prompted by the student director. He attempts to call Ashleigh but gets annoyed when Pollard, and his writer Ted Davidoff and one of his stars keep Ashleigh busy.

Ashleigh's interview continues to last well into the afternoon. Meanwhile, Gatsby runs into Chan again by accident when they both hail a cab in another part of town. She tells Gatsby she use to have a crush on him and refuses to listen to him talk about Ashleigh. His weekend romantic plans with Gatsby seem further delayed, when he calls Ashleigh and tells him she is busy and cannot talk. He goes with Chan to her parents apartment and sings "Everything Happens to Me" by Sinatra on her parents piano. They discuss their love for New York and agree it is one of the most romantic places on rainy days.

Gatsby and Chan go to the MET and see Sargent's Madame X portrait and some of the French Impressionists on display there. They agree about everything. They run across his aunt and uncle whom they try to avoid so Gatsby parents don't discover that he's in town. He again tries to call Ashleigh on her mobile when his aunt and uncle find him. Ashleigh meanwhile seems to have hit it off with one of Pollard screen stars who is also taken with Ashleigh's good looks and invites her to his private trailer on the New York set where he is working. Gatsby's trip to the MET ends and he still does not know where Ashleigh is. Unknown to him, Ashleigh has gone out for drinks with Pollard's leading male actor and she tells him about Gatsby. She has some wine which goes straight to her head. Gatsby meanwhile goes to another friend's house for a poker game. Although distracted by thoughts of Ashleigh, he nonetheless doubles his entire stakes to $15K as the rain continues falling outside in NYC. On the TV, when he returns back to his room, Gatsby sees Ashleigh on the 6 o'clock news out on the town with her new famous film star friend. He decides he needs a drink and goes to the Carlyle cocktail bar. An alluring blonde joins him. He offers her $5,000 for her company and services.

Ashleigh goes out to another party with her new film star friend, where she re-connects with Pollard and her interview with him. Still smitten with her, Pollard wants her to be his muse for his next film project and to stay with him. She circles back to her new film star friend at the party and appears to continue with her clueless and ceaseless flirting. Back at the Carlyle, Gatsby explains to his pick-up date that he wants her to play act as a stand-in for impersonating Ashleigh at a family evening party which they were supposed to originally attend together. Separately, Ashleigh and her new film star friend go back to his place in the evening. Ashleigh shares a joint and some drinks with him and they start to undress when his out-of-town girlfriend arrives unexpectedly. He manages to sneak Ashleigh out through a backdoor and tells her to leave even though she is wearing only a raincoat over her bra and panties.

At Gatsby's family party, Gatsby arrives with his fake stand-in for Ashleigh, and his mother soon catches on and sees through the "Ashleigh" play acting. She throws the prostitute out of her home and then she confronts Gatsby. His mother says that she herself played the field in her younger days as a hooker and got married through the connections she made that way. She says that's how Gatsby came to get his privileged chances in life. Gatsby is shocked into silence. The real Ashleigh, however, finally finds him back at the Carlyle bar drowning his sorrows. She confesses to being drunk and partying. She promises to make up for it the next day so that they can finally try to bond in NYC the way they originally planned to do when the trip started. Then she tells him all about her day long emotional and sexual misadventures. Gatsby wants to return to college immediately. They decide to take a horse-drawn cab ride early the next day in Central Park before leaving. It's raining, and Ashleigh doesn't seem quite impressed with the views. Gatsby realizes that they must be completely incompatible and that he wants to get out of the relationship, and seems not to care about returning to college either. He breaks up with her then and there. He walks alone through Central Park until he arrives at Delacorte Clock at the Central Park Zoo and waits. The clock strikes 6 pm. Chan arrives few moments later. They remember their kiss for the screen test the day before and decide to see if another kissing session, this time alone in the park, might lead to something new.

MY REVIEW:

3.0 stars out of 5 stars

At first, the movie seems boring to me. (Sorry) The narration is exhausting. I honestly watch the movie because it was recommended by a friend, and also it stars Selena Gomez whom I like and for me she was the reason I like the movie. I hate that Elle Fanning's character makes me cringe. I gave the movie 3 stars because it made me laugh. Yeah, it is kind of funny. The actors portraying the characters seems unfit for the roles. Like, Jude Law. If you're asking me if I'd recommend this? No. It's quite predictable not to mention you can actually guess the whole movie by watching the trailer.

Yes, it's a romantic comedy. It's an okay movie though.