CriticSociety- film reviews

Review

Melinda and Melinda

Director

Woody Allen

Year

2004

Rating

Reviewed by

Gon Curiel a.k.a. Groucho

Review date

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

After years of Woody Allen obscurity, with so-so movies that didn’t quite catch any attention, and heard voices from all around repeating over and over that Allen had lost his spark, Melinda and Melinda came, and was hailed by most people as a good sign from the legendary, low-key filmmaker. Quite frankly, I don’t agree with those who said this is Allen at his best, or even average Allen, but I do share the opinion that this showed he could still handle a film and still held the potential to do great things. As we all know by now, the promise was kept, as his next film, 2005’s Match Point, became his most lauded film in over a decade.

What Melinda and Melinda does offer, if not common entertainment as craved by any moviegoer, is an interesting observation of drama, and how different view-points can transform the same thing into a completely different take on life. The story commences with a table of intellectuals, namely two playwrights, Al (Neil Pepe) and Sy (Wallace Shawn), discussing life as seen from a comic or a dramatic point of view. Sy goes for comic, Al for dramatic, and they do something fun: given a premise, they take the same story in different directions—one dramatic, one comic—and observe the procedure at every turn. It sure is an interesting idea!

The story: A woman named Melinda (Radha Mitchell) drops by unexpectedly in a dinner party disrupting the event.

Al’s story shows her as a very disturbed woman, wrecked by her failed marriage and ill-fated affairs, and slowly decaying into madness in the best Blanche Dubois style. The dinner party is hosted by an old friend, Laurel (Chloë Sevigny), and her husband Lee (Jonny Lee Miller). After some time, with a little help from her friends, Melinda starts rebuilding her life, but it’s her romance to pianist Ellis (Chiwetel Ejiofor) that determines the course of her fate.

Sy’s story shows her as a complicated but lighthearted woman whose failed marriage and overall bad-luck relationships only complicate her life further, though she tends to complicate the lives of people around her as a sort of charming epidemic. The dinner’s hosts are Susan (Amanda Peet), a film assistant director who aspires to helm a movie of her own, and her husband Hobie (Will Ferrell). Hobie soon falls for Melinda, and his cold relationship to his wife Susan doesn’t help, but he doesn’t want to make his wife suffer and also has no idea how to get to Melinda. Every attempt proves more and more unfortunate and it all gets wacky and hilarious after a while.

The result is successful as seen by the debating playwrights: the stories start in a similar way, both go in similar directions, yet both are completely different. However, the movie we’re watching is not half as successful. The stories aren’t similar enough to make the comparisons interesting, and neither is sufficiently absorbing in itself. Only after a good while the comic take gets catchy, and Ferrell’s performance, closely resembling the typical Allen persona, helps a lot, but it doesn’t quite get there. The dramatic one is more boring than tragic, and only gets affecting at the very end. Laurel’s character, movingly performed by Sevigny, makes an impression though.

Mitchell’s casting is fortunate and successful. She hasn’t got too much attention since, as I gather, but it’s still notable how well she pulled off both Melindas without any apparent trouble. Great job.

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Other reviews of Melinda and Melinda (2004): Morris