Melinda and Melinda (2004)

Very well executed

A Major Disappointment

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

While out to dinner, four friends discuss comedy vs tragedy as a part of life. Two of them, both playwrights, decide to tell the story of the same person, Melinda. One will tell it as a comedy, the other as a tragedy.Clever, original comedy-drama, written and directed by Woody Allen. Quite profound and thought-provoking in how it examines a story, and life in general, from two angles. Great work by Radha Mitchell as Melinda (and Melinda).

Finally got to see this gem. As a film, I found it very interesting to watch for technical and directing reasons. I counted one take that was a minute and a-half long of walking through down a street in the city. I've always admired the way Woody Allen can use these long takes to such great advantage. And I admire the actors for managing to pull them off. As I slowly get through the entire Woody Allen library, one by one, I found this film to be a little too Woody Allen a times. Again, someone is going to be introduced to a dentist or a doctor named 'Sy Rubenstein," 'Sol Eplestein' or Juda, or Noah... The whole New York Jewish thing is so predictable in his films. Also, again the dialogue which is just not how people speak - Not even in New York. Will Ferrel's character was like listening to Woody Allen in Annie Hall, except the lines were delivered by someone else. Some of the gags were very good though. Over all I thought the performance were well done, all around. Thought everyone was well suited for the character and they all did a great job. Glad to have it in my Woody Allen collection.

It's been a while since I watched a Woody Allen film and it'll be a while longer before I watch another, at least from his more recent work, based on my experience here. I was half-interested in the tragi-comic plot until I realised it had been done before and better, in "Sliding Doors". I also didn't care for the framing device of the intellectuals imagining the contrasting plot strands, like you do, when you're out having a drink in a pub.The beautiful dreamed-up thirty-something characters (and I may be over-using the term here) are all cardboard thin, with an unusual penchant for 30's jazz and esoteric classical music like someone 40 years older, throwing about terms like "baseless canard", like you do and falling in love with every second person they meet in their social group.The acting is dire, Will Ferrell doing a particularly bad younger Woody impersonation and Radha Mitchell in the title roles, an even worse Diane Keaton in the "comedy" version (in particular you'll cringe at her "kookiness" as she leaves her lawyer's office in a drunken state) and ditto her take on Mia Farrow in the "tragedy" version, over-emoting for all she's worth. Never for a minute does she seem as deep, vivacious and irresistible as the script would have you think.One or two lines raised a smile, but I don't think my teeth even once escaped my lips throughout. There was a line where a character complained about press intrusion which actually sounded as if it was based on reality, as I thought of Allen's own much-publicised time in the tabloid spotlight over his child-custody wrangling with Farrow, but it was just a passing moment. Otherwise, Allen would have you think this is a film about repressed love, with much discussion about the soul, but it's all false and hollow proselytising and above all else very dreary and at times embarrassing to watch.For me it was both tragic and comedic that this ho-hum script ever got filmed in the first place.

Let's face it, even our favourite and most talented film directors get it wrong sometimes, and this is one of those times. This film script is one of those 'clever ideas' that people get late at night, and when they are half drunk they say: 'Wouldn't it be great if ...?' But in the cold light of the morning, this should have been abandoned as too artificial. The idea of having two alternative stories about a girl called Melinda, one comic and one tragic, is too theoretical. You might as well try and make a film out of DAS KAPITAL, which is also theoretical. Woody here is 'too clever for his own good' and it backfires. There is no use talking about the performances, as actors here are not the point. A film which is excessively contrived, as this one is, is simply an embarrassment to everyone associated with it. I must say, the evening scenes of the people talking about the two Melindas are the most contrived of all, and not at all cinematically well executed. Films are meant to be illusions, but they need to be convincing illusions, not artificial fabrications such as university undergraduates would come up with while chatting in the dorm.