A Rainy Day in New York Review

A Woody Allen movie, A Rainy Day in New York, features a star-studded cast, including Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Jude Law, and Selena Gomez, with the story being unpredictable and intricately woven.

In this film, we follow a young man named Gatsby (Chalamet), who attends a liberal arts school in upstate New York called Yardley, alongside his girlfriend Ashleigh (Fanning). The couple plans to spend a weekend in Manhattan, where Ashleigh is scheduled to interview a filmmaker named Roland Pollard for an hour. She agrees to spend the rest of her trip with him, while Gatsby shows her around his hometown. However, nothing goes as expected.

Gatsby runs into an old friend, a film student shooting a short film, who asks him to stand in for a missing actor for a shot that involves kissing his co-star. To Gatsby’s surprise, the actress turns out to be Chan Tyrell (Gomez), the younger sister of a former girlfriend.

The couple arrives in Manhattan with what seems like a straightforward itinerary, but their plans and relationship veer further from expectations.

While the movie’s beginning is bright and picturesque, it gradually shifts into darker and more somber scenes. The rain serves as a constant backdrop, with the melancholy weather reflecting the complicated lives of our two protagonists and their failing relationship.

One of the film’s greatest challenges is its cast of characters. Despite a stellar ensemble—Chalamet, Fanning, Law, and Gomez—the characters themselves felt one-dimensional.

Although there were more than a few subplots in the story, they felt a bit out of place and often bizarre, like Jude Law’s character Ted, who finds out his wife was being unfaithful. These side stories felt disconnected.

Gatsby’s character felt a bit boring at times despite his quirky traits, and he often seemed emotionally distant. Meanwhile, Ashleigh seems detached and self-absorbed, especially as she’s swept up in the allure of the glamorous Manhattan world, leaving Gatsby to fend for himself.

Their relationship, which was the core of the film, ultimately feels flat, especially as Gatsby’s loyalty to Ashleigh is tested time and time again. While the relationship between Chan and Gatsby wasn’t any better either. The lack of chemistry between characters made it hard to invest in their journeys.

In the end, A Rainy Day in New York is an intricate portrayal of young love. Although the film felt a bit random at times, the lack of strong lead characters left less of an impact.