Timothée Chalamet and Selena Gomez in “A Rainy Day in New York.” IMDb photo

“A Rainy Day in New York,” was released Oct. 9, 2022, while I was racking leaves in the front yard.

MOVIE INFO

“A RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK”
Romantic comedy
A young couple arrives in New York for a weekend and meet with bad weather and a series of adventures.
Length: 92 minutes
Rating: Mild sex, nudity, profanity, alcohol, drugs and smoking
Director: Woody Allen
Writer: Woody Allen
Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Liev Schreiber

How did “A Rainy Day in New York” get by me? It’s so full of stars and all so young.

Welcome to a Woody Allen film that will surprise you.

By now, we all know Timothee Chalamet (the French-American actor and film producer from 2017’s “Call Me by Your Name,” nominated for Best Actor), right?

In Woody’s “Rainy Day in New York” he’s Gatsby Welles, a disaffected really smart college boy, only a few years away from chocolate malts, who only wants to spend this rainy day in Manhattan with his bubbly, excited girlfriend Ashleigh (Elle Fanning, sister of Dakota Fanning). That’s them.

Then there’s the intriguing Selena Gomez (“Emilia Perez,” 2024), a femme star of TV’s “Only Murders in the Building?” who always surprises us once again by those chocolate eyes. She would have been better than Ingrid Bergman in the 1940s’ “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” don’t you think?

We meet Liev Schreiber walking slowly through the movie as a boozing and unhappy director.

We meet the wonderful Jude Law who works hard at something he’s too good to work hard at.

Okay, this gang is all here in Woody’s “Rainy Day in New York.”

Gatsby wants to romance Ashleigh, who’s more psyched about interviewing film director (Schreiber).

I know, it’s crazy and complicated as Woody likes, and has lots of great serious actors like Law and Schreiber, who enjoys just being in a funny movie for a change.

Gatsby eventually winds up at his wealthy parents’ party after he is abandoned by Ashleigh, but shows up with a gorgeous hooker (a fun and delightful Kelly Rohrbach) that stuns and delights the party.

It’s here that Woody surprises us by slipping in a quiet side room scene with Gatsby’s irate mother (the always great Cherry Jones) who steals the scene, and almost the picture, as she always does, with a story that will knock you out of your seat. Why didn’t someone tell Woody that that’s the story he should have made.

“Rainy Night’ written and directed by Woody, and brought to life by the incredible Vittorio Storaro (“Apocalypse Now” and “Reds”).

It’s funny, and Timothee gets to be Woody and that will surprise and delight you.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.