Melinda and Melinda Review
by Mark R. Leeper (markrleeper AT yahoo DOT com)April 25th, 2005
MELINDA AND MELINDA
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Woody Allen shows us how the same
inspiration can inspire either a comedy or a
tragic love story. We see the creative process
at work as a comedy director creates a comic
story and a more serious director takes the
original story in the direction of tragedy.
The only trouble is that occasionally we cannot
tell which is the comic and which is the tragic
story and neither story is particularly engaging.
This is more an interesting idea for a film than
an interesting film. Rating: low +1 (-4 to +4)
or 5/10
More so than with any other director, when Woody Allen makes a new film I feel compelled to put the new film on the curve of Allen's career and see how this film stacks up against his recent films. That is because after CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS Allen seems to have stopped making films for his audiences. Certainly his films have been much less audience pleasers. Most people I know have at least one film they like from this last period, but there is no consensus that any of his films have been good. I moderately enjoyed BULLETS OVER BROADWAY and ANYTHING ELSE. But Allen's films are no longer reliably good and some have been quite bad. MELINDA AND MELINDA is being acclaimed as Allen's return to greatness, but I just do not see greatness in this film.
The concept is the best thing about MELINDA AND MELINDA. Two successful film directors are having dinner at a fancy restaurant with some of their friends. Sy (played by Wallace Shawn) is known for his bright comedies. Max (Larry Pine) makes films that are tragic looks at life. A friend tells a story that we do not hear. Each of the directors tells what he would do if he were adapting this story as a film. We see the two stories play out using elements from the unheard story in different ways. Each story tells of how Melinda (Radha Mitchell) arrives unexpectedly from out of town to visit her friend. The two sub-films have different characters and tell nearly different stories, though each has Melinda as a character, and in each Mitchell plays her. Each tells how she is the catalyst to ruin the relationship of her friend, her friend's husband, and two of their friends. The relationships do go wrong, but so does the film because each of the stories is not engaging and fails to make us care for the characters.
We are distanced from the characters because the two filmmakers, who obviously represent two sides of Allen's personality, use much the same style for their films. Speaking for myself it is not a style that works well. Part of the problem is that most of the action of the film is not shown to us but we are told. The sex scenes we do get to see, but most of the rest of the scenes consist of characters getting together and discussing what is happening in their lives. The film tells us far too much and shows us far too little. And because we do not see much of the characters in action, we do not know who they are. And not knowing who they are we do not care much about what happens to them. And when Allen fails to involve us in the characters we do not really who ends up bedding whom. It all seems like gossip about people we do not know. Ironically, the film shows us a small piece of Edgar Ulmer's THE BLACK CAT. This is a film in which the major action took place years before and there are plenty of scenes of talking about the past. But the interest never flags because there is plenty of action in the present, unlike in MELINDA AND MELINDA. As an aside, I think THE BLACK CAT is an under-appreciated gem of delightfully morbid black comedy. It may be the best film of Universal's creative period from 1930 to 1935.
Woody Allen's screen personality always seems to be present in his films even if he himself is only behind the camera. Here the Woody Allen figure is Hobie (Will Ferrell) who in spite of very different physical stature has the Allen patented personality and mannerisms. Some of the other characters do not seem human at all. Who do you know who would say "Life has a funny way of dealing with great potential" or "My sad tale should come from my lips"? That is another reason it is hard to get into these characters' lives and care who is getting into each other's beds. For my money this is another Allen misfire. I rate it a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 5/10.
Mark R. Leeper
[email protected]
Copyright 2005 Mark R. Leeper
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