Average fare from Allen
Added 12/5/2009
I like Woody Allen movies and have recently started to watch his entire catalog. I think people compare a great director with is earlier works and this becomes the problem. Radha Mitchell plays the lead character Melinda with great finesse. Melinda number one is a old high school friend who comes in unannounced and Melinda number 2 is a neighbor who crashes a party. It has a lot of famous names but Carell, Farrell and Sevigny are all wasted. The writing is superb in some instances but on the whole it is not a great movie. I also thought the ending was not clever and felt forced. I give it 2.5 stars 120409
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good movie
Added 7/22/2009
I enjoyed "Melinda and Melinda". I loved basic premise of the film. Four writers are having dinner and the question of whether life is inherently tragic or comic is brought up. Being writers they explore the philosophical question by having two playwrights with opposing viewpoints each create a comic and tragic story, both simply beginning with an upset woman arriving at a dinner party. Both stories work on film and both make their case well. Chiwetel Ejiofor is terrific. Will Ferrell is Will Ferrel doing just fine in his comedic role. Vinessa Shaw is great. No complaints really.
I was wondering about the reception of this movie...how about just looking at the movie and not comparing it to all of Allen's other movies you've loved so much...OK, so it isn't possible? Well for the most part it is for me. Nobody would think it's on a par with Annie Hall or Manhattan but clearly every time a talented director who has made classic films doesn't churn out another classic or isn't breaking new ground he gets raked over coals. As for comparing things how about comparing this to "romantic" and comedy films in general, that Hollywood puts out? Try that and see how it compares. But if you still think "Melinda and Melinda" stinks, fair enough, to each his own.
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Looking for Woody
Added 10/15/2008
Woody Allen, in his long career as a comic, writer, actor, producer and director has worked many themes but the urban (usually New York City his home turf) slices of life are usually the best. Here Woody takes a tragic-comic, or is it comedic-tragic look at the trials and tribulations of an off-beat New York society girl Melinda as filtered through a comedy director's and a tragedy director's vision of the story line. Some amusing moments, especially for a hapless Woody wannabe character who falls in love with the comic version of Melinda. Nothing profound here and nothing that Woody hasn't analyzed a hundred times before but a very nice racially-mixed ensemble cast (it is New York in the 2000's, remember) does a nice job with the material as Woody enters the 21st century.
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Woody Allen was a big star. Radha Mitchell will be a big star. The two- nebbishy New York intellectual and gorgeous blond Australian actress- are the two essential ingredients in Allen's latest film, Melinda And Melinda, which just opened in Texas last week. While not at the level of the greatest Allen films from his Golden Age of 1977-1992 it is a significant step above his last few meager outings, and hearkens back to some of those earlier classics. Like Broadway Danny Rose it is a film that is told to the audience via raconteurs at a restaurant, like Annie Hall it is a romantic comedy, and like Interiors it is a European type parlor drama.
The film opens with four people discussing philosophy- more cogently the merits of tragedy versus comedy, after one of them proffers a tale, and asks two older playwrights (the two sides of Allen himself) to opine on whether the tale would work better as a comedy or tragedy. The tragedian Max (Larry Pine), who thinks life funny, expounds the tragic aspects of it while the comic writer Sy (Wallace Shawn), who thinks life is sad, does the comedic aspects, and thus the viewer is taken into the two tales of Melinda, whose `real' tale has been elided at the beginning.... In a sense, a film that this is reminiscent of is the late 1990s Gwyneth Paltrow film Sliding Doors, which follows the lives of the same character if and if she did not make a choice to do something. In this film, Melinda is two different conceptions, not the same character in two differently conceived settings, although Radha Mitchell excels as both versions- an augury of her major talent. Neither film, as constituted, would work separately, and I doubt either could, even if rounded out. But, because of its bifurcated nature, and the lack of traditional structuring in each half there is a sense of wanting more left on the viewer's palate- not a bad thing, but knowing we see more on the plate, yet cannot touch it is frustrating; the definition of a Woody Allen film in his post-Golden Age.
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An Enjoyable Woody Allen Flick
Added 9/14/2008
Woody Allen is clearly held to higher standard than most film directors. Is this because he has benchmarked the film industry with classics such as Annie Hall and Manhattan? Perhaps it is due to his longevity in an unforgiving industry despite failures, both personal and professional? Is it because of his brilliance-- creating film in genres as diverse as Bananas and Match Point?
The expectation is that a woody Allen film should be better than most, and this one is. Its not his top dog, and it isn't brilliant, and that will no doubt bother many critics.
Woody Allen has been deconstructed many, many times (See, for example, Deconstructing Harry) so it is refreshing to see this film where Allen steps outside himself by setting up a story line and allowing it to follow two paths. For some, it becomes tragedy, and others, comedy.
It is not Allen's deepest film, but it worth watching and enjoying.
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