Great Character: Mary Wilke (“Manhattan”)

In November, guest columnist Jason Cuthbert looks at five significant female characters in Woody Allen movies. Today: Mary Wilke from the 1979 movie Manhattan, written by Allen and Marshall Brickman.

The momentous New York City movie Manhattan gained its name from screenwriter and director Woody Allen’s favorite landmark location on God’s Green Earth. But this decadent hometown love letter printed in film stock was almost chucked in the Hudson River, never to inspire legions of locals, transplants and tourists. Lucky for us, Woody never received his desire to direct a film for free for United Artists if the studio agreed to never-ever-ever release Manhattan. In 1979, Woody Allen’s first black & white flick wound up being his most successful (until Hannah and Her Sisters entered into the picture in 1986.)

Diane Keaton’s role in Manhattan as Mary Wilke, the brainy but blunt journalist from Philadelphia, paired her with Woody Allen for the 6th time on screen. But Keaton is not rehashing another free-spirited wide-eyed innocent Woody Allen conquest from Annie Hall. Mary Wilke is actually what Annie Hall would become after being jaded by the jagged edge of divorce, emotional tug-of-war with married men and fleeting feelings that betray her better judgment.

Manhattan from IMDB:

A divorced New Yorker currently dating a high-schooler brings himself to look for love in the mistress of his best friend instead.

Fiercely flawed and flawlessly fierce, Mary Wilke is a heart-breaking hurricane hitting the East Coast with an unapologetically raw wit, making men stop and watch long enough to get sucked up into her vortex.

MARY WILKE: I’m honest, whaddya want? I say what’s on my mind and, if you can’t take it, well then fuck off!

Even as a solid attractor character to a pair of pals, Yale (Michael Murphy) and Isaac (Woody Allen), Wilke can also double as an antagonist, causing them to argue, lie, cheat and bend their integrity sideways for her affection. Isaac and Yale may be totally connected to Manhattan professionally and socially, but Mary on the other hand seems to mock their metropolitan island paradise, right in their face, preferring the cultivation she acquired back home in Philadelphia.

MARY WILKE: Hey listen…I don’t even want to have this conversation. I mean really, I mean I’m just from Philadelphia, you know. We believe in GOD.

Does she secretly want a man just like her ex-husband, oozing with intellectual anecdotes (Yale)? Or does she run for cover from academics by passing time with a laugh-savvy comic writer (Isaac)? One moment she is rebuking geniuses by sending them to her imaginary “Academy of the Overrated” while with Yale. Then in Isaac’s company she builds up her wall of wisdom by defending rational thought and taking pride in listing the names of the rings of Saturn.

MARY WILKE: Don’t psychoanalyze me. I pay a doctor for that.

Leave it to Mary to openly brag about her ex-husband presumed genius while simultaneously bedding Yale (Michael Murphy) behind his wife’s back. Suddenly it seems cool to switch things up and consider the single man Isaac as her future-procreating collaborator, even with an initial co-sign from Yale himself. But then retreating back to Yale in spite of her desire for the undivided attention of a single suitor seems like the move. This “Love Rectangle” is actually a “Love Pentagon” considering Isaac’s 17-year old lover is being played like a pubescent pawn in these very adult games. Mary may not know what she wants, but she isn’t waiting for “it” to introduce itself to her.

Don’t get Mary started on the subject of art. Museum mavens may get their feelings hurt. Her insults are hurled at works of art with the same vicious intensity needed to level them with a baseball bat. Her matter-of-fact utterances traffic in a realm outside of opinion — she’d rather label her thoughts as simply…the truth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8FpnM0NlXk

Even after making Isaac completely allergic to her authoritative ideas, she manages to play right into his overall desire to groom her into his ideal woman…at least for a little while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dT0bF9AS90

For her thinking out loud honesty, her self-aware warnings that she is not Easy Breezy Beautiful Covergirl and for her female spin on stereotypically male standards like unfaithful sexual activity and sailor mouth cuss words that can shipwreck any showboat, Welcome to Manhattan Mary Wilke…you are one GREAT CHARACTER.

While Annie Hall and Hannah and Her Sisters are my favorite Woody Allen movies, Mary Wilke may be the most compelling character Allen has created for many of the reasons Jason has noted above, opinionated and seemingly cocksure, yet a fragile mass of conflicting inner impulses.

For all you Manhattan fans, let’s head to comments to discuss this excellent movie and fascinating character Mary Wilke.

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