I Heart New York. But Do I Finally Heart Woody Allen?

Confession: I do not understand the appeal of Woody Allen films. I didn't laugh once during Annie Hall. Manhattan did not sweep me off my feet. I wanted to smack people in Bullets over Broadway and Manhattan Murder Mystery. Mighty Aphrodite inspired swearing at my television set. However, to be a well-rounded reviewer, I have to expand my film base, even to auteurs who make me cringe. So when Film Forum revived Hannah and Her Sisters this week, I decided it was time to try Woody again.

Manhattan may be the easy choice for the quintessential Woody Allen New York film, but I’d argue it’s 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters. Hannah (Mia Farrow), sisters Holly and Lee (Academy-Award winner Dianne Wiest and Barbara Hershey), and their men really interact with the city. They listen to Bobby Short at the Café Carlyle and buy artwork in not-yet-gentrified SoHo. They cram into an Upper West Side apartment for Thanksgiving, meet their soul mates at Tower Records and find the meaning of life watching movies at the Metro. (Sadly, the Metro, Tower and Short are no more, and the artists scattered to Chelsea or Williamsburg.)

Allen’s Oscar-winning script features bon-mots aplenty, most of which Allen utters in the guise of television producer Mickey Sachs. During his latest midlife crisis, Mickey, born Jewish but never really a believer in God, explores other faiths. First stop: Catholicism. “I know - sounds funny,” Mickey tells his horrified father. “But I’m going to give it a try.” A few months later, Mickey chats with the Hare Krishna because he didn’t like the Catholic policy of “die now, pay later.” He’s also not a Nietzsche fan: “He said that the life we lived we're gonna live over again the exact same way for eternity. Great. That means I'll have to sit through the Ice Capades again.” Mickey is one of Allen’s warmest creations - still anxious, still Woody, but you can understand how fellow neurotic Holly eventually falls in love with him.

While Mickey and Holly have developed arcs over the two-year span of Hannah and Her Sisters, Holly’s siblings don’t fare as well. We see Hannah as a stable doer, a warm mother, the peacemaker in her parents’ marriage. (Mom is Maureen O’Sullivan, Farrow’s real-life mother.) But other than a nonsensical line about Hannah’s overly giving nature, we don’t understand what makes Elliot (Michael Caine, another Oscar winner) stray from his wife - to Lee, no less - nor do we see change in the titular character.

Lee remains an even greater enigma. The thirtysomething flits through life with no discernable direction. She’s drawn to older men such as Elliot and dour live-in boyfriend Frederick (Max von Sydow) - unexplored father issues? (Hannah said their parents didn’t know how to raise them.) Furthermore, in the last quarter of the movie, we mostly hear others talk of Lee’s experiences; we never hear her speak about them.

But go back to what makes Hannah and Her Sisters so special: the city. The most enchanting moment comes when architect Robert (a pre-Law and Order Sam Waterston) takes Holly and friend/rival April (Carrie Fisher) on a driving tour of his favorite places. Most - Pomander Walk, the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden - are sights only a local would recognize. When Allen does focus on an icon such as the Chrysler Building, he doesn’t zoom to its recognizable spire; instead, just by shooting its ornamentation, he captures the site’s essence. This is a New York to love.