A RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK

I never thought I'd live to see Timothee Chalamet play Woody Allen but then I realised the young male lead in any Woody Allen film is only a substitute for the character Woody himself would have played 40 or 50 years ago. In fact, every male lead in every Woody Allen picture is Woody whether they are Timothee Chalamet or Joaquin Phoenix or Owen Wilson or anyone else and that every Woody Allen film is just like the one before, particularly if they are good or are comedies like the early funny ones.

"A Rainy Day in New York" is Allen at his slightest and his most incestuous but it is funny and it is charming. The jokes are old-hat but they're funny even if we did hear them as far back as "Manhattan" and Woody can still muster a first-rate cast to deliver his old-hat gags. Chalamet is smart enough to take on the Allen role but imbue it with enough of his own personality to stand out while Ellie Fanning, (channelling her inner Diane Keaton), and Selena Gomez are terrific as the two (young) women in Allen/Chalamet's life. In fact, Allen pops up quite a bit in this film; Jude Law's screenwriter is Allen, Griffin Newman's student filmmaker is Allen and, of course, Liev Schreiber's director is Allen. Oh wait, isn't he Allen's version of Bergman or, at least, Bergman if he were a character in a Woody Allen picture.

Of course, no-one will ever claim "A Rainy Day in New York" as first-rate Allen and while it's funny it's never as funny as those early funny ones but it does look gorgeous, (once again Storaro shot it), the whole cast throw themselves into it shamelessly, (indeed, there was a time before Woody fell out of favour when Fanning might have got an Oscar for Supporting Actress), and Allen completests certainly won't want to miss it.