Monday, April 11, 2005
Melinda and Melinda (2005)
Director: Woody Allen
See January for: ^Closer; ^The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou; ^Finding Neverland; ^The Aviator
See February for: ^Million Dollar Baby; ^Male and Female; ^Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; ^ Love; ^Sunrise; ^Ray
See March for: ^Being Julia; ^ Millions
* Warning the following analysis contains a discussion of the entire film – including the ending.
In the spirit of full disclosure I must begin by confessing I absolutely love Woody Allen movies. If I was forced to choose a single favorite filmmaker: Woody Allen. If I was forced to choose a favorite movie: Annie Hall. .. or maybe Manhattan . . . or perhaps Crimes and Misdemeanors. You get the idea. You know the past 5 or so Woody Allen movies that have been panned . . . I like those movies. At the very worst I’m pleasantly entertained (when not moved by greatness) watching any Woody Allen film you can name. I am all smiles with anticipation each time I see that title card reading Written and Directed by Woody Allen. It is perhaps the most recognizable title card in film: that familiar Woody Allen font in white on a black background, most likely accompanied by some great old jazz record soundtrack.
For me there are 2 categories of Woody Allen movies, the great and the just good. I will admit the last great Woody Allen movie was Sweet and Low Down (1999). There have been no great ones this millennia. Yet when anyone bad-mouths Woody’s latest attempt I prickle and reply: name another director with 3 decades of great movies and another ½ decade with good movies! The great films resonate either emotionally or intellectually (or both). For example, Annie Hall and Manhattan capture the long-term emotional tenor of relations better than any other film I know. Those final scenes (two of my favorite endings in film history) break my heart ever time. These films are made more significant given such insight is rarely found in typical bubble-gum American romantic comedies. Crimes and Misdemeanors, by contrast, takes on weighty questions about justice, morality and social class. Purple Rose of Cairo and Bullets Over Broadway take an interesting look at the role of artists and art in individual lives and American culture. Sweet and Lowdown (Woody’s extremely under-rated La Stada) looks at an individual struggling with competing internal forces of creativity, love and personal freedom. I could go on, and on, and on.
These are Woody’s great movies. They are extremely entertaining (often hilarious) with a significant intellectual/emotional sub-text. His good movies, by contrast, only entertain. Melinda and Melinda is a good movie.
If there is anything that disappoint in Melinda and Melinda it is your hope (based on the opening scene) that this might be Allen’s first great movie of the 2000s. The opening is an homage to Louis Malle’s My Dinner with Andre. You have Wallace Shawn (and friends) having a discussion at a restaurant table about the connection between theater and life. They are debating whether a real life story just heard is a tragedy or a comedy and by extension whether life in general is tragic or comic. The perfect set-up for a great Woody movie. Unfortunately, all we get is the good variety. Although the movie entertains, the potential to also impart some significant insights about art or life is left on the table.
Stor(ies) synopsis:
Since this is only a good Allen film there is not much to discuss beyond a summary of plot, which is kinda like a book report, so I will be brief.
In the dramatic segment Melinda, Laurel and Cassie’s old college friend, shows up for a promised visit to New York two months after she is expected. Not only is she weeks late, she arrives just in time to disrupt an important dinner party (Laurel’s husband Lee is entertaining the producer of a play he desperate wants a part in). We discover Melinda’s tardiness is due to a nasty divorce, the lost custody of her children and an attempted suicide. We hope Melinda’s fresh love to a brilliant composer/pianist will save her from her horribly dark recent past. In the climatic scene Melinda reveals how in a rage planned and killed the lover for whom she left her husband and children. Melinda was on trial but found innocent. In this wicked climatic scene Allen closely frames Melinda while she confesses her story uninterrupted in a long, ever tightening single shot. The vulnerability he captures as the story is revealed is wicked. Melinda needs desperately to confess this horrible truth, simultaneous she knows her confession will drive away Ellis; his love is her only hope left for happiness. Melinda is that classic figure who must wander the earth retelling her awful story.
The comic retelling begins with Melinda’s suicide attempt. Melinda is a downstairs neighbor to Susan and Hobie. Again, she bursts in on a dinner party at an inopportune moment (this time Susan is a director trying to sell her story to a producer). Melinda enters and announces she has just taken 27 sleeping pills and collapses. Subsequently Hobie slowly falls in love with Melinda while Susan falls in love with Peter, the ‘perfect guy, she had in mind for Melinda. Everyone is unfaithful and Hobie is hilarious when he walks in on Peter in bed with Susan: he can scarcely contain his delight thinking he is now free to pursue Melinda and goes on to name all Peter’s fine qualities as they try to hide behind the sheets. In the comic version love does save Melinda and revitalize Hobie (a rarity in a Woody Allen film) and we are happy for the oddball couple.
(Side Note: Will Ferrel is by the far the best Woody Allen stand-in. He is hilarious delivering the fast paced neurotic Allen dialogue and wise cracks. He somehow manages to make it clear this is the Woody Allen part without it seeming like he is merely doing a Woody Allen impression. He makes the roll his own. Wonderfully, hilariously done.)
(Side Note 2; Both the dramatic and comic portions are filled with Allen watermarks: gorgeous shots of New York City, amazing apartments, witty, intelligent dialogue, and a series of infidelities complicating relationships.)
Should you see it: Sure, it is a good Woody Allen movie – just don’t expect a great one.
See January for: ^Closer; ^The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou; ^Finding Neverland; ^The Aviator
See February for: ^Million Dollar Baby; ^Male and Female; ^Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; ^ Love; ^Sunrise; ^Ray
See March for: ^Being Julia; ^ Millions
* Warning the following analysis contains a discussion of the entire film – including the ending.
In the spirit of full disclosure I must begin by confessing I absolutely love Woody Allen movies. If I was forced to choose a single favorite filmmaker: Woody Allen. If I was forced to choose a favorite movie: Annie Hall. .. or maybe Manhattan . . . or perhaps Crimes and Misdemeanors. You get the idea. You know the past 5 or so Woody Allen movies that have been panned . . . I like those movies. At the very worst I’m pleasantly entertained (when not moved by greatness) watching any Woody Allen film you can name. I am all smiles with anticipation each time I see that title card reading Written and Directed by Woody Allen. It is perhaps the most recognizable title card in film: that familiar Woody Allen font in white on a black background, most likely accompanied by some great old jazz record soundtrack.
For me there are 2 categories of Woody Allen movies, the great and the just good. I will admit the last great Woody Allen movie was Sweet and Low Down (1999). There have been no great ones this millennia. Yet when anyone bad-mouths Woody’s latest attempt I prickle and reply: name another director with 3 decades of great movies and another ½ decade with good movies! The great films resonate either emotionally or intellectually (or both). For example, Annie Hall and Manhattan capture the long-term emotional tenor of relations better than any other film I know. Those final scenes (two of my favorite endings in film history) break my heart ever time. These films are made more significant given such insight is rarely found in typical bubble-gum American romantic comedies. Crimes and Misdemeanors, by contrast, takes on weighty questions about justice, morality and social class. Purple Rose of Cairo and Bullets Over Broadway take an interesting look at the role of artists and art in individual lives and American culture. Sweet and Lowdown (Woody’s extremely under-rated La Stada) looks at an individual struggling with competing internal forces of creativity, love and personal freedom. I could go on, and on, and on.
These are Woody’s great movies. They are extremely entertaining (often hilarious) with a significant intellectual/emotional sub-text. His good movies, by contrast, only entertain. Melinda and Melinda is a good movie.
If there is anything that disappoint in Melinda and Melinda it is your hope (based on the opening scene) that this might be Allen’s first great movie of the 2000s. The opening is an homage to Louis Malle’s My Dinner with Andre. You have Wallace Shawn (and friends) having a discussion at a restaurant table about the connection between theater and life. They are debating whether a real life story just heard is a tragedy or a comedy and by extension whether life in general is tragic or comic. The perfect set-up for a great Woody movie. Unfortunately, all we get is the good variety. Although the movie entertains, the potential to also impart some significant insights about art or life is left on the table.
Stor(ies) synopsis:
Since this is only a good Allen film there is not much to discuss beyond a summary of plot, which is kinda like a book report, so I will be brief.
In the dramatic segment Melinda, Laurel and Cassie’s old college friend, shows up for a promised visit to New York two months after she is expected. Not only is she weeks late, she arrives just in time to disrupt an important dinner party (Laurel’s husband Lee is entertaining the producer of a play he desperate wants a part in). We discover Melinda’s tardiness is due to a nasty divorce, the lost custody of her children and an attempted suicide. We hope Melinda’s fresh love to a brilliant composer/pianist will save her from her horribly dark recent past. In the climatic scene Melinda reveals how in a rage planned and killed the lover for whom she left her husband and children. Melinda was on trial but found innocent. In this wicked climatic scene Allen closely frames Melinda while she confesses her story uninterrupted in a long, ever tightening single shot. The vulnerability he captures as the story is revealed is wicked. Melinda needs desperately to confess this horrible truth, simultaneous she knows her confession will drive away Ellis; his love is her only hope left for happiness. Melinda is that classic figure who must wander the earth retelling her awful story.
The comic retelling begins with Melinda’s suicide attempt. Melinda is a downstairs neighbor to Susan and Hobie. Again, she bursts in on a dinner party at an inopportune moment (this time Susan is a director trying to sell her story to a producer). Melinda enters and announces she has just taken 27 sleeping pills and collapses. Subsequently Hobie slowly falls in love with Melinda while Susan falls in love with Peter, the ‘perfect guy, she had in mind for Melinda. Everyone is unfaithful and Hobie is hilarious when he walks in on Peter in bed with Susan: he can scarcely contain his delight thinking he is now free to pursue Melinda and goes on to name all Peter’s fine qualities as they try to hide behind the sheets. In the comic version love does save Melinda and revitalize Hobie (a rarity in a Woody Allen film) and we are happy for the oddball couple.
(Side Note: Will Ferrel is by the far the best Woody Allen stand-in. He is hilarious delivering the fast paced neurotic Allen dialogue and wise cracks. He somehow manages to make it clear this is the Woody Allen part without it seeming like he is merely doing a Woody Allen impression. He makes the roll his own. Wonderfully, hilariously done.)
(Side Note 2; Both the dramatic and comic portions are filled with Allen watermarks: gorgeous shots of New York City, amazing apartments, witty, intelligent dialogue, and a series of infidelities complicating relationships.)
Should you see it: Sure, it is a good Woody Allen movie – just don’t expect a great one.
