It has great performances, snappy one-liners and a likeably tricksy structure, all wrapped up in an affirmative antidote to life's daunting complexities. Welcome back, Woody.
Melinda and Melinda (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:150
Fresh:80
Rotten:70
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: Woody Allen's uneven Melinda and Melinda fails to find neither comedy nor pathos in what seems like a rehash of his previous themes.
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Woody Allen mixes the tragic with the comic in MELINDA AND MELINDA, a delightful, intelligent look at two versions of the same story. After hearing a tale about a quirky woman who walks in... Woody Allen mixes the tragic with the comic in MELINDA AND MELINDA, a delightful, intelligent look at two versions of the same story. After hearing a tale about a quirky woman who walks in unexpectedly on a dinner party in an apartment in New York City, Sy (Wallace Shawn) expands it into a romantic comedy, while Max (Larry Pine) turns it into an urban tragedy. Allen intercuts between the two retellings, intermingling cause and effect, love and romance, failure and success, as Melinda creates havoc in both fictional worlds. Each story has its own cast: the comedy features Will Ferrell, Amanda Peet, and Josh Brolin; the tragedy stars Chloe Sevigny, Jonny Lee Miller, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Radha Mitchell is the only repeat actor, playing both Melindas, and she does a tremendous job. Interestingly, the comic section is not a straight laughfest, like Allen's SLEEPERS, ANNIE HALL, or BULLETS OVER BROADWAY, and the more serious part is not nearly as dour as INTERIORS or ANOTHER WOMAN. Instead, Allen, who has been criticized by critics and fans alike for not making more funny films, has created two parallel universes that each combines aspects of comedy and tragedy, resulting in a wonderful, insightful drama. [More]
Starring: Wallace Shawn, Larry Pine, Radha Mitchell, Jonny Lee Miller
Starring: Wallace Shawn, Larry Pine, Radha Mitchell, Jonny Lee Miller, Chloë Sevigny, Will Ferrell, Chjwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Steve Carell, Shalom Harlow, Vanessa Shaw, Josh Brolin
Director: Woody Allen
Director: Woody Allen
Screenwriter: Andy Borowitz, Woody Allen
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Reviews for Melinda and Melinda
Engaging, well performed, cleverly constructed and both tragic and comic as befits its objectives.
It's impossible to empathise because the circumstances are so ridiculously contrived.
There is nothing original about it, but the only source it plagiarises is Allen himself, and it rips him off rather well
Woody Allen’s best film for Quite Some Time, an inventive, intellectual comedy with an attractive cast and an amusing script.
Inventive and insightful look at relationships, although it suffers the flaws of Allen's more recent films.
While the main lure for audiences--Will Ferrell--is basically forgettable, Allen does compose one fascinating and witty look at the human mind and its own ability to depict events through our own sub-conscious preference.
Reminds us there is little to divide comedy from tragedy, and that neither comes exclusively. After all, the tears of sorrow and the tears of joy both come from the same place, and dampen a tissue with equal intensity.
Mitchell, in her dual role, gives a breakout performance (two of them, in fact).
A movie just shouldn't feel like homework. And with the constant shift in stories and repeatedly reinvented characters, unless you're in the mood for taking notes, you're going to feel like you're invited to rehearsals, rather than the finished product.
All the inner workings of "Melinda and Melinda" show that Allen has finally risen above, returned to his position as a fine filmmaker.
Neither version of Melinda, despite Mitchell’s game try at making them distinctive beyond their different hairdos, is funny or tragic enough to fully engage us; there’s no opportunity for an audience to be moved.
Allen presents the side-by-side stories as if to compare the comic and tragic views of experience, and it might work but for the fact that the two [playwrights] come up with dissimilar plots featuring different characters played mostly by different actors
One story, two versions, each from Woody Allen, so you know you're in for it.
A welcome return to form from a really talented guy who's been churning out cinematic junk for the past few years.
(...) aburrida, ni lo suficientemente cómica, ni lo suficientemente dramática...
finding the plot "gimmick" seems to exhaust all of Allen's creativity
Latest News for Melinda and Melinda
April 25, 2005:
Radha Mitchell to Climb the "Silent Hill" for TriStar Pictures
More...
April 20, 2005:
Cusack and Peet Have a Favorite "Martian"
Described by The Hollywood Reporter as "a cross between E.T. and Parenthood" is the upcoming family film "The Martian Child." John Cusack ("High... More...
April 01, 2005:
Steve Carell to "Get Smart"?
Andrew Weil of ComingSoon.net had a brief chat with funnyman Steve Carell while visiting the set of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," and here's what the actor had to say... More...
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