A Rainy Day in New York Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

A Rainy Day in New York Blu-ray Movie Review

The not-so-great Gatsby.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III November 10, 2020

Woody Allen's A Rainy Day in New York continues the writer/director's remarkable feat of delivering one film almost every year since 1966. It's got a solid cast, is set in Manhattan, features a neurotic protagonist, and the title card is set in Windsor Light Condensed -- all the usual highlights, but also a few drawbacks that prevent it from reaching greater heights. This still feels like a durable, well-paced, and lightly entertaining return to Allen's better days.

Our story follows two young lovers during one eventful day in Manhattan, where eccentric Gatsby Welles (Timothée Chalamet) has taken girlfriend Ashleigh Enright (Elle Fanning) for a break from their time at upstate Yardley College. He's got a nice weekend planned but the weather isn't cooperating... and neither is Ashleigh's other reason for being in the city: an interview with filmmaker Roland Pollard (Liev Schreiber), which goes on much longer than expected due to a conflict with screenwriter Ted Davidoff (Jude Law). Wandering while he waits, Gatsby bumps into Chan Tyell (Selena Gomez), the sister of a former girlfriend; they certainly don't hit it off at first, but a second encounter changes their perspectives. Meanwhile, Ashleigh's detour becomes a series of events that literally and figuratively drives her further away from Gatsby, from an abridged cross-town taxi ride with Ted to a whirlwind movie-set encounter with attractive leading man Francisco Vega (Diego Luna). It's not quite After Hours, but in the same ballpark.

I'll admit to being a sucker for "one eventful day" dramas and, though Manhattan may not be the most exotic of locales, A Rainy Day in New York showcases a number of scenic landmarks and beautiful, ornate interiors captured under mostly warm and interior light. It doesn't feature people and places I'd normally be drawn towards but is still accessible and oddly inviting, with characters that are easy to care about whether they make all -- or any -- of the right decisions during their brief journey. Perhaps the film's only glaring fault is its repeated dependency on coincidences to drive everything forward, which would be less obvious if it weren't staged in such a crowded city. That, and the slightly overbearing dialogue espoused by our leads: it would sound fine coming from most other Woody Allen characters, alter egos or not, but occasionally makes Gatsby and Ashleigh sound like they're wearing their parents' clothes.

Shot and completed by the end of 2017, A Rainy Day in New York was the center of a bitter legal dispute between Allen and the film's original distributor, Amazon Studios, who eventually returned distribution rights to the director in 2019. It still took another calendar year to be released theatrically in the US but obviously struggled back in May, so MPI Media Group's new Blu-ray will be, for many, their first exposure. Although Allen's avoidance of bonus features makes this a movie-only disc, its unconventional but attractive cinematography translates well to the small screen.

A Rainy Day in New York Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shot in the increasingly common "quasi-cinematic" 2:1 aspect ratio, A Rainy Day in New York is a surprisingly unusual looking film considering the subject matter. It maintains no clear look or palette, bouncing freely between magic-hour warmth, slightly blown-out interiors, overcast and half-sunny interiors, and maybe one or two scenes where an obvious blue filter was applied. This fits the film's linear and ever-shifting narrative but seems far removed from the look you'd usually associate with such a title. Nonetheless, MPI's Blu-ray shines with a solid 1080p transfer free from sharpening, edge enhancement, and excessive noise reduction while running at a very high bit rate -- not surprising, considering this is a movie-only disc that barely exceeds the 90-minute mark. Colors almost bleed through and some of the hazy or blown-out interiors also exhibit white blooming; both seem to be intentional choices by Oscar-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, perhaps most famous for his work on Apocalypse Now and The Last Emperor. Overall it's a fine effort that, even if you don't fully cotton to the film, showcases plenty of great-looking location footage.

A Rainy Day in New York Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Blu-ray's DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio features an appropriately subdued mix that places dialogue front and center, which sounds either slightly boxed in or spacious, depending strongly on the location. Strong channel separation is surprisingly rare, with Allen's trademark jazzy score dipping into the rears but mostly enjoying a strong front presence without overpowering the speech. Diegetic music, from Gatsby's somber piano performance of "Everything Happens to Me" (perhaps most famously recorded by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra featuring Frank Sinatra) to lively party and background songs, drifts closer towards the rears but rarely achieves a fully immersive atmosphere. Overall, everything simply gets the job done more often than not with no flagrant defects or sync issues.

But I will take issue with the lackluster English subtitles, which don't always sync cleanly and feature an almost embarrassing number of misheard words that make certain sentences awfully confusing.

A Rainy Day in New York Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with poster-themed cover artwork and no inserts. Predictably for a Woody Allen film, absolutely no bonus features are included.

A Rainy Day in New York Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Although it centers around two young lovers drifting apart for very different reasons, Woody Allen's A Rainy Day in New York retains a respectable amount of warmth and intimacy during one eventful day. Featuring a great cast and and an amiable, very linear path of dramatic episodes, the film's only drawbacks are a heavy dependency on coincidence -- especially blatant, considering where it takes place -- and several patches of dialogue that far exceed any reasonable 20-year-old's vocabulary. MPI Media Group's Blu-ray marks what might as well be the long-delayed film's domestic debut, serving up a very solid A/V presentation and, per usual for Woody Allen, absolutely no extras. This one's certainly work a look for die-hard fans, but it's only a recommended blind buy if you really like the cast.