Review: Woody Allen's Irrational Man

NEW YORK (WABC) -- This is Woody Allen's 45th feature film. Some are good, others bad or indifferent and sprinkled among them: quite a few masterpieces. "Irrational Man" is far from his best but it's nowhere near his worst and well worth seeing mainly because the two stars are great together.

Joaquin Phoenix is back to doing what he does best. His career as a 'wanna be' rapper was mercifully brief and he is reminding us all over again where his true talents lie.

Phoenix plays a burn-out case named Abe Lucas, a philosophy professor at a fictional college in Rhode Island.

A couple of women offer to help.

Parker Posey hopes to distract him, but that is tough when the student is played by Emma Stone.

It is at this restaurant his despair starts to lift and this comedy turns very black indeed.

Turns out there's nothing like a little death to give this desperate character a new lease on life.

To say more would be to spoil a tale that is somewhere between truly clever and totally predictable. Watching this "Irrational Man" plot, what he hopes will be the perfect crime, is like taking a pleasant stroll contemplating a few of life's mysteries on a summer's day without tying your brain into too many knots.

I saw this film during my recent vacation and it didn't feel like work at all!

I took my niece and nephew who "loved" it. Jimmy and Melody Goudge call Irrational Man "smart, funny" even "charming." They're telling friends "you gotta go see this movie" for the moral debate over murder and forbidden love and lots of other reasons. I'm with them.