Melinda and Melinda film review

certificate_12A

MELINDA AND MELINDA

A return to form after the relatively patchy quality of most of his recent films, Melinda and Melinda is Woody Allen's latest attempt to distinguish between the tragic and the comic. It's a theme that has run through most of Allen's work in some shape or other, from the more explicit nature of Crimes and Misdemeanors to the subtext of films such as Husbands and Wives. Here he tackles the subject head-on, and with his usual mix of upscale and literate New Yorkers in various degrees of crisis, there's much enjoyment to be had.

The film's prologue and epilogue are set in a restaurant, where two writers discuss the nature of tragedy and comedy and come up with a ruse: both of them will tell the same story, but one with a comic twist and the other tragic. And so the film proper begins, with the same Melinda portrayed by Radha Mitchell alternately as a down on her luck good-time girl who brings havoc into the lives of those she meets, and a shimmering light who brightens the world of everyone around her.

In the darker scenes, Melinda arrives at the home of Laurel (Chloe Sevigny) and Lee (Johnny Lee Miller), an artistic couple who know her from college. Melinda soon discovers Lee is cheating on his wife, but selfishly uses this for her own benefit. A putative romance begins with a piano player (Chiwetel Ejiofor), which threatens the stability of the new situation she finds herself in.

Meanwhile a much more relaxed Melinda moves in upstairs from Susan (Amanda Peet) and Hobie (Will Ferrell), a director and actor looking to find funding for their next pretentious work. Susan and Hobie's relationship is fizzling out, and Hobie soon turns to Melinda as the object of his desire.

There are plenty of other plot complications, some of which speed things along at a pleasant rate, and one or two which do slow down the action. Inevitably the lighter scenes come off best. Ferrell assumes the Allen mantle but delivers a relatively restrained performance, and one which is hugely likeable. It's a coup for Allen to have cast him, and his presence should hopefully extend the film's appeal beyond the declining number of Allen acolytes.