|
MELINDA AND MELINDA Send This Review to a Friend
Woody Allen’s latest is a deceptively simple yet enjoyably complex comedy that treats us to a batch of entertaining performances, some witty gag lines and a contemporary look of New York that updates the tours of the city in previous Allen films. This time the action visits currently popular haunts. Also, a lead character played by Will Ferrell is an updated version of the sort of acting turns Allen used to claim for himself.
The central idea involves a group sitting around a table at which two writers give views of what is best, tragedy or comedy. Wallace Shawn as Sy thinks comedy is the superior approach, while Larry Pine as Max argues for tragedy. Each has an idea of what might happen to a young woman named Melinda. Allen, calling his own shots as writer-director, takes over from there, allowing Sy and Max to offer various situations, romantic permutations and infidelities to be played out with Melinda at the center of a changing cast assortment, resulting in a blend of the comic and the serious.
Fortunately, Radha Mitchell is a knockout as Melinda, no matter in which situation we follow her. She’s lovely to watch—a welcome, skillful Allen heroine. Also, while Ferrell usually does very broad comedy, under Allen’s supervision he scales back to a funny but more realistic and likable romantic lead who bumbles along in his love for Melinda. Allen juggles other actors in a pastiche of complications, including Chloë Sevigny, Brooke Smith, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Johnny Lee Miller, Josh Brolin, Vinessa Shaw and Zak Orth.
The film is so light and breezy that it seems slight, and yet when one considers the way the complexities and romantic permutations are woven with utter smoothness, “Melinda and Melinda” emerges as yet another Allen achievement. It is narrow-minded to keep measuring each Allen work against his best or our favorites. See and contemplate “Melinda and Melinda” and try to find other contemporary comedies that afford as many sophisticated delights. It is also good to see Allen keeping pace with changing times, yet still flashing his particular brand of cinematic and comedic skill. A Fox Searchlight Pictures release.
|