Irrational man

Director: Woody Allen

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Parker Posey, Emma Stone

At the small-town New England college campus of Braylin, philosophy professor Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) finds himself in an existential crisis, but he eventually discovers a new purpose in life when he enters into a relationship with Jill Pollard (Emma Stone), one of his students. Jill's boyfriend Roy gets fed up with Jill's talking about Abe all the time, and reluctantly breaks off his relationship with her. While eating together at a diner, Abe and Jill overhear a conversation where a woman describes that she will lose her children in a custody fight because of a certain seemingly unethical judge in family court. Abe is troubled by the injustice, and, without telling Jill, decides to help the woman by murdering the judge; since he is not related to the case he would not be suspected. Abe steals from colleague Rita, with whom he has sometimes had sex, a key to the college's science lab, where he steals cyanide. He finds out that the judge has the habit of jogging in the park, and drinking a cup of orange juice on a bench afterwards. Abe puts the poison in an identical cup of orange juice, and exchanges the cups surreptitiously while sitting on the same bench, and walks away with the judge's cup. The judge dies as expected. It is eventually discovered that it was murder by cyanide poisoning. Jill and Rita get more and more clues of Abe's involvement, such as the missing key and Abe being seen in the lab; Jill also breaks into Abe's house and finds incriminating notes. Rita decides that even if he is guilty she wants to divorce her husband and go live abroad with Abe. After Jill confronts Abe, he confesses to her. She decides to break off their relationship, but she promises not to turn him in. However, after an innocent person becomes accused by the police of the crime, she presses Abe to turn himself in, and warns him that otherwise she will report him in a few days. Abe, who has only recently started enjoying life more than before, is determined not to lose that again by imprisonment or suicide. He attempts to kill Jill by pushing her down an elevator shaft which he has rigged, but instead slips on a flashlight he has dropped by accident and kills himself, leaving Jill to try to repair her own life after his death.