By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Brooke Smith | Chloe Sevigny | Jonny Lee Miller | Radha Mitchell | Will Ferrell
Country: united_states
Year: 2005
Running time: 100
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0353969/combined
Janet says: “I keep dragging myself to these Woody Allen movies—mostly, at this point, to see the clothing and interior decor. The young couples in the film are decorating their upscale pads in an Anthropologie style with touches of the 50s and 70s. Who knew that knotty pine kitchen cabinets were back in again? There are also some very nice handbags.
“But it’s the fact that they’re young couples that creates problems. Woody continues to try to stuff his middle-aged New York material into the mouths of unsuitable actors. At times the writing is very good, but the characters as played by these actors don’t seem to have the depth or worldliness to understand, much less originate, what they’re saying. There are a number of weird fits here. Brooke Smith is apparently a New Yorker (I checked imdb), but Woody has her playing very Jewish, I mean like matronly Jewish/Jewish mother, in a manner that’s way off base for her age. Jonny Lee Miller is problematic—I detected his British accent in one of his final scenes. He also doesn’t seem to have any idea what his lines mean. A scene which I think should be one of the tensest and ugliest in the film—Jonny’s character is drunk and says some sleazy sexual things to a pregnant friend—comes off pretty light, partly because I didn’t even know he was supposed to be drunk. And his character is the most charismatic and gifted actor from their class at Northwestern? I don’t think so.
“Chloe Sevigny is impeccable as always. She’s doing the Upper East Side-background thing, the type of role Gwyneth Paltrow could have stepped into. Apparently Chloe is from this type of background, but, as we’ve seen in BOYS DON’T CRY, she can play any class. As can Paltrow (HARD EIGHT).
“What I’m saying is not that I want to see actors who fit the geography and biography of the character—who are essentially playing themselves—but that I want more than the handbags and the bookcases. I want the voice, the expression, the meat of living in the character instead of trying it on. If you’re going to have to spend the whole film concentrating on your accent, just say no.
“Radha Mitchell does quite well—but the role is another instance of Woody’s unsettling eroticizing of lost-soul women (something that’s been stated explicitly in other films). If they’re in bad shape, they’re fascinating, and if they’re suicidal, let me at ’em! And at times, she looks and sounds just like Mia Farrow in some of the earlier films. Quelle ironie.
“One of the best actors in the piece is Will Ferrell. Like Kenneth Branagh, he’s imitating Woody here. (Does Woody dictate that the actors do that, or is it an homage?) But as strange as that is, and as much as he’s responsible for all the laughs in the movie, he really seems to dig in and find the variety and expression in the material. I was surprised at how much I liked him.
“The weird disparities we see between the actors and the material results from the unholy alliance between Woody and Soon-Yi. He relies on her to tell him who the hot actors are, then he casts them in his usual material. I forgave Woody a long time ago for sleeping with his stepdaughter (in Soon-Yi’s case, of course, there was nothing to forgive). But come on, you two, put your dual sensibilities together and MAKE SOMETHING NEW.
“Listen to how people in their thirties talk, and write something like that. Or make a movie about older people (fifties and sixties, as a compromise?), and have it be authentic. There’s nothing shameful, Woody, in being seventy. The audience wants what it wants.
“3 cats (honk if you love Wally Shawn)”
Thom says: “To say that MELINDA AND MELINDA is a return to Allen’s best form is markedly untrue, but the film does have its moments. The conceit of the story is terrific: four members of the intelligentsia are having a relaxed meal in a higher end restaurant. The two men are successful playwrights, one a comic writer, the other tragic. They both put a different spin on the same story, and their visions are shown with the story going back and forth to each version. Radha Mitchell, fresh from her FINDING NEVERLAND success, does a good job with the two Melinda parts. Will Ferrell, in the Woody Allen role, as part of the comic Melinda story, is adequate, but I’m still at a loss to understand his superstar status. He’s not a gifted actor, and it can’t be his ordinary looks, he’s a curious star. I, for one, have long grown despondent at Allen always having his titles exactly the same, in other words, showing zilch creativity with them. While the comic story has many virtues in the script, the tragic one really doesn’t represent true tragedy, Mitchell’s messy, weak character sees to that. Jonny Lee Miller is fine, just as he was in John Water’s vastly underrated A DIRTY SHAME. But the greatest attribute the film has is Chloe Sevigny, who establishes herself as the finest actress of her generation. She was the reason I went to see the film and she came through with another stunning performance. 3 CATS”
Amanda says: “I thought that MELINDA AND MELINDA was a refreshing change from HOLLYWOOD ENDING (which I couldn’t even finish–almost never happens). I don’t think critics or Allen fans are trying to say that it compares to ANNIE HALL or HANNAH AND HER SISTERS, but that it is his better work in the past fill-in-the-blank years or so?
“As for Will Ferrell….I like him the way I think a lot of people like Tom Hanks. When he is ridiculous, insane funny he makes me laugh my ass off. And when he plays a more generic, charming ‘joe’ I feel like he is someone that I already know (or want to know more of!). I think that he will be one of our contemporary comedic actors that transfers over to dramatic roles like Hanks, Robin Williams, and Jim Carrey. How successfully and when?!?!?”