Melinda and Melinda
The last decade hasn't been terribly kind to Woody Allen. He briefly found some of his old magic mid-aughts with Match Point and Scoop;
but for the most part it was one misfire after another, with the added
insult of having to move many of his productions away from his beloved
Manhattan to Europe, where his remaining popularity could still secure
financing. Nevertheless, there's one group of people who always want to
work with Allen: actors. He's assembled another fine cast for Melinda and Melinda, but the material just isn't up to it this time.
In a way, Melinda and Melinda is an attempt by Allen to examine the two sides of his writing personality. What is it that drives him to write drama versus comedy for a particular story? Do story ideas always present themselves as one or the other? Is it just a point of view?
It's an interesting internal debate, but no so fascinating when
played out on screen. Radha Mitchell has the awkward task of portraying
Allen's titular dual role: in the drama half, a manic depressive mess
whose life is in shambles; in the comedic half, a whimsical, quirky
heart breaker. She pulls it off
well enough, but unfortunately the dramatic version of Melinda isn't
all that intense and the comic version isn't all that funny. There just
isn't enough room in these two 45-minute short stories to developing
anything interesting enough to make the debate about drama versus
comedy worth having.
- August 13, 2009
DVD Extras
As with almost all Woody Allen movies, bupkis.