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 | Melinda And Melinda Director: Woody Allen Rated: M Palace Nova, Now screening Regardless of what you think of the man, Woody Allen is a cinematic giant. He made the best slapstick since his heroes Chaplin and Keaton - 'Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask' (1972) and 'Sleeper' (1973). He showed that he could handle intense drama in 'Interiors' (1978) and made two template romantic comedies which have been imitated incessantly, but never matched - 'Annie Hall' (1977), and 'Manhattan' (1979). Allen has remained prolific, averaging a movie a year; however, his strike rate is waning. 'Deconstructing Harry' (1997) and 'Husbands And Wives' (1992) were excellent, but his last masterpiece was 'The Purple Rose Of Cairo' (1985) where Allen blurred the boundaries between cinema and life by allowing characters to move freely between a real movie and the real world. So is Allen finished? Have the classics dried up? His detractors accuse him of repeating himself - that his comic references are dated and that all his male characters sound like him. Certainly Allen's days as a romantic lead are over. No one was going to believe that Charlize Theron would sleep with him in 'The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion' (2003). In 'Melinda And Melinda' Allen examines the relationship between comedy and tragedy by presenting two concurrent stories - one comedic and one tragic - using the same central character Melinda (Radha Mitchell) and similar plot elements in each. Sy (Wallace Shawn), a comedy writer is having dinner with three friends, one of whom writes drama. Sy's view is that comedy and tragic are different: "Tragedy confronts, comedy escapes". When his friend disagrees, the two try to prove their point by composing tragic and comedic stories using the same scenario; thus the film becomes the two stories. In the tragic story, a desperate Melinda arrives unexpectedly at the dinner party of her old friend Laurel (Chloe Sevigny) and her actor husband Lee (Johnny Lee Miller). Melinda is weighed down by tragic baggage - a broken marriage, lost custody of her children, the murder of her boyfriend and a suicide attempt. Laurel and Lee take Melinda in, and Laurel and their friend Cassie (Brooke Smith) try to reinvigorate Melinda by setting her up with a dentist friend. However, Melinda falls in love instead with a black musician Ellis (Chwietel Ejiofor). Tragedy looms when Laurel and Lee break up and Laurel becomes attracted to Ellis. In the comic story, Melinda is the new tenant down the hall who drunkenly barges into the dinner party of Susan (Amanda Peet) and her husband Hobie (Will Ferrell). Susan befriends Melanie and tries to set her up with yet another dentist friend, Greg (Josh Brolin). The problem is that Hobie falls in love with Melinda and becomes obsessed with sabotaging Susan's plans. In the end neither story completely satisfied. The comic story was mildly amusing, but merely an escape from the more compelling tragic story which developed well, yet ended brusquely. The separation was an interesting experiment, but I found myself longing for 'Annie Hall' where Allen seamlessly fused tragedy and comedy to Oscar winning effect. Sevigny, Ejiofor and Mitchell as the tragic Melinda are all appealing. The surprise package is Ferrell who is more restrained than usual, yet still gets laughs (yes, he sounds like Allen). The scene where he finds Susan in bed with another man and tries to contain his glee because he is now free to pursue Melinda is hilarious. 'Melinda and Melinda' is a worthy Allen effort, but no classic. Still, worthy Allen is better than most cinema. If Eastwood can make great movies at seventy-five, Allen may well have one or two more left in him.  | |
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