Delayed by the collapse of Woody Allen’s deal with Amazon amid comments he made about the #MeToo movement, A Rainy Day In New York arrives with perhaps the biggest star-studded cast/no fanfare ratio of his career. Perhaps showcasing the last big-name ensemble Allen will ever assemble— Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez, Jude Law, Diego Luna, Rebecca Hall — it’s a familiar affair (romantic shenanigans, upscale lives, pretty shots of New York) with a smattering of good lines and moments, but for the most part it is the filmmaker working in a minor, somewhat tired key.
The mostly-set-over-one-day plot sees Yardley college sweethearts Gatsby Welles (Timothée Chalamet in Woody alter-ego mode) and wannabe journalist Ashleigh Enright (Elle Fanning, MVP) arrive in the Big Apple so Ashleigh can interview reclusive film director Roland Pollard (Liev Schreiber), who is putting the finishing touches to his next film (this is the make-believe world the film operates in, where a renowned moviemaker deep in post-production has the time/inclination to speak to a student). The busy plot splits in two as Ashleigh bounces from older man to older man; after Pollard, she meets the director’s regular screenwriting partner Ted Davidoff (Jude Law), who believes his wife Connie (a wasted Rebecca Hall) is cheating on him, and then segues to over-sexed screen heartthrob Francisco Vega (Diego Luna), who whisks Ashleigh back to his giant loft. At one point, in a strange, possibly self-reflexive observation, Gatsby says: “What is it about older guys that seems so appealing to women?”
On Chalamet’s side, upset his plans for a weekend of fancy-dan meals, swish hotels and piano bars have been scuppered, Gatsby Welles — the ridiculous name alludes to his cavalier gambling tendencies — bumps into Shannon (Selena Gomez), the younger sister of his ex, making a student film, and the pair walk and talk around the city in that way Woody Allen characters do (when she learns Ashleigh is from Tucson, she quips, “What do you guys talk about? Cactus?”). Some of it lands — there is a fun chase around an Egyptian-mummy exhibition — but it mostly feels like the filmmaker revisiting his recurrent obsessions (which is fine) but with increasingly more heavy-handed, diminishing returns.
Despite the presence of iPhones and references to the “one per cent”, A Rainy Day In New York still takes place in Allen’s own cinematic universe — the WACU — where youngsters name-drop Irving Berlin and sport tweed. Allen’s best contemporary work, from Annie Hall to Manhattan to Husbands And Wives, still managed to keep one foot in the present. A feeling underlined by Vittorio Storaro’s warm, amber, nostalgic hues, A Rainy Day In New York has both feet firmly planted in the past.