Dir. Woody Allen, 2005, USA, 99 min
Cast: Radha Mitchell, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Will Ferrell, Jonny Lee Miller, Amanda Peet
There are few things more reliable in film than the arrival of a new Woody Allen. We get a fresh one every year and sometimes two within 18 months. With each release, over the last decade, critics generally tell the same story; that the writer/director is not as good as he used to be.
Of course, judged against Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Hannah & Her Sisters, no one is as good Woody Allen used to be. Yet over the last decade he has produced Deconstructing Harry and Sweet & Lowdown, two terrific films, and a few others worth a look too. His latest, Melinda and Melinda, is another success: its contemporary, sharp and intelligent in all the right places.
Allen uses a framing device to set up his story. Four bourgeois New Yorkers sit in a restaurant talking. Two of them are writers, and an anecdote about a woman called Melinda develops into a challenge between them. Each of the scribes will interpret the same events in Melinda's story, one spinning them into a comedy, the other twisting them into a tragedy. Both versions of the story are played out for the audience with two sets of actors relating to Melinda, played by Radha Mitchell.
The idea serves the picture well, giving the familiar set-up of neurotic New Yorkers, infidelity, and couples who cannot communicate, a fresh look. Melinda turns up, unannounced, at her friends door; a married couple hosting a dinner party. She's been out in the sticks for some years, and is in trouble thanks to considerable misfortune. In the "dramatic" version of the story, the couple are played by Jonny Lee Miller and Chloe Sevigny. In the comedy alternative, the married couple are represented by Will Ferrell and Amanda Peet.
Both versions of Melinda's tale dovetail with each other in carefully judged scenes. As is life, there are comic moments in the serious bits, and some heaviness in the comedy. Radha Mitchell gives an effective dual performance. In truth, she doesn't differentiate the two versions too much. Perhaps the comic Melinda has more of a sense of hope, but overall she is a consistent character. Mitchell is able to portray vulnerability, intelligence and sensuality in a role that showcases her talent. Will Ferrell is outstanding as the cuckolded husband who gets very interested in the welfare of Melinda. He is basically playing the "Woody Allen" role, so he gets the great dialogue,
but he also brings his particular skill as a physical comedian (honed at the Saturday Night Live academy) to the piece (and it's not a Woody impersonation like Kenneth Branagh in Celebrity).
He obviously relishes the chance to step away from the broad roles that most people will know him for. Elsewhere, Chiwetel Ejiofor offers charming support and Chloe Sevigny is good, as she always seems to be.
Melinda and Melinda is a not quite classic Woody Allen; which still places it above many contemporary rom-coms. It engages the brain, the ears, Will Ferrell is a hoot, and its thoroughly enjoyable-and for that it doesn't have to be a masterpiece.
Johnny Messias
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