‘A loose-limbed trifle’: why Manhattan Murder Mystery is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers on their go-to comfort watches is a look back to Woody Allen’s smart and nimble 1993 comedy

Some sounds are immediately comforting. Gulls, trains, a kettle. The opening chords of I Happen to Like New York, which, despite Bobby Short’s vocals escalating in volume and emphasis ALARMINGLY FAST, signals the start of one of Woody Allen’s loveliest little pictures.

This 1993 comedy is like an unaffected Annie Hall – an impromptu reunion for Allen and Diane Keaton, playing essentially more functioning versions of those characters, 15 odd years on. Impromptu because although the first seeds of the idea came from an early draft of that 1977 film, the fairly elaborate plot was only properly written years later as a vehicle for Mia Farrow. She and Allen’s split during the end of the shoot on their previous film, 1992’s Husbands and Wives, kiboshed that plan.

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