Student at Rhode Island university falls for her philosophy professor, a burnt-out, hard-drinking older man with a pot belly and a reputation for sleeping with his students. He initially hopes to keep their relationship casual, that is until the thought of doing society a favor--eliminating someone with a worse reputation than his--comes to mind, which brightens his outlook and gives him the impetus to date and enjoy life for the first time. Fine Woody Allen drama, well-acted yet rife with the writer-director's familiar crimes-and-misdemeanors (with a tip of the hat to Dostoevsky). The teacher-student affair is another Allen-trademark, though Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone are subtly charismatic in these roles. Still, nothing much seems to happen in the first 45 minutes (Allen takes too much time kick-starting the plot) and the general cast of characters here is very small. Allen uses a jazzy rendition of "The 'In' Crowd" as a music motif, and doesn't rely too much on sex or sex talk to spark his narrative, though one does become impatient with Phoenix's teacher, who justifies his actions again and again--first in a voice-over and then to Stone, for whom his feelings are never really made clear. **1/2 from ****
Review of Irrational Man
