Another year, another Woody Allen film.

Irrational Man, his 49th feature, places Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix - Her) in an awkward place. He's a philosophy professor of note whose arrival at a new university sends both students and faculty into a spin, none more so than awe-struck Jill (Emma Stone - Aloha) and lusty teacher Rita (Parker Posey – Grace Of Monaco). As each form a relationship with Abe, it soon becomes clear that the brooding alcoholic has brought trouble with him. Each in their way seeks to shake him out of his funk. A project, they argue is just what he needs.

The deathly quiet that met this rarified comedy underlines just how far from the mark Irrational Man lands. None of the warm humour of Midnight In Paris, none of the satirical jabs that peppered Blue Jasmine, none of the belly laughs that filled The Purple Rose of Cairo. This is a much more languid affair that seeks amusement from observing an unpleasant man become even more unpleasant as he discovers a way to reclaim his sense of purpose. Schadenfreude at its most schadenfreude.

For what pulls Abe back into the sunshine is the irrational idea to kill a misogynistic judge he's deemed unworthy of life. But once Jill gets wind of the plan, she tries to convince Abe of his wrong-headedness. The plotting which ends in a coal black place is smart and cryptic if too often too clever for its own good. What it's not, is funny.

The always magnetic Phoenix is easy to watch, despite a familiarity about a performance that seems to merge Doc Sportello's stoner detective and Freddie Quell's fiery personality. Less successful is Stone who revisits the whimsy of Allen's Magic In The Moonlight and the mania she wrought in Aloha. Posey is her usual kooky self, while Besty Aidem and Ethan Phillips do what they often do in support. Reliable, you might say.

If you feel like you've been here before (with or without Allen), you probably have. Not that Irrational Man is a bad film exactly. Many would argue it's one of his better stories, an enjoyable existential romp that touches on classic Allen: dark, pithy, anxiety ridden. Others would address that argument with a vexatious wave: isn't this what he always does?

In either regard, Allen is becoming an increasingly acquired taste whose annual outing raises the simple observation: perhaps a little less Woody might make Woody a lot more satisfying.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Roadshow Theatre, Sydney, on 2 July 2015