Melinda and Melinda
Well, it’s about time. After a decade of underwhelming movies (though I’ve yet to see “Sweet and Lowdown” and “Small Time Crooks”), writer-director Woody Allen has returned- in a way- to the confident, intelligent type of comic-dramatic filmmaking he made his name for in the ’70s and ’80s before slipping into tragic repetition and annoying neuroticism that has hampered much of his work since his last real triumph- 1994’s “Bullets Over Broadway.” His work got old. His newest film, though, feels new, and feels alive. It also feels personal- something his work since “Broadway” has lacked. “Melinda and Melinda” spins its’ story on a dime…and a question. Is life comic or tragic? This is a quandry two playwrights (Wallace Shawn and Larry Pine) is contemplating over dinner in a New York restaurant at the start of the movie. To argue their differing perspectives, the playwrights devise an idea- take the simple setup of a woman named Melinda crashing a dinner party hosted to one couple, but take it in the direction of the comic (Shawn’s story) or tragic (Pine’s). In both stories, Melinda is played by Radha Mitchell, who was the social climbing wife of J.M. Barrie in last year’s “Finding Neverland” and Colin Ferrell’s wife in “Phone Booth.” This is one of best recent performances in a Woody Allen movie- maybe one of the best in any Allen film- and one of the year’s early gems that should be remembered at Oscar time. In Shawn’s story, where she’s the downstairs neighbor of Hobie, an out-of-work actor (slyly underplayed by Will Ferrell, filling the “Woody Allen” role so to speak), and Susan, an indie director whose next film is called “The Castration Sonata” (Amanda Peet is sexy and winning in an all-too-brief and underwritten role), Mitchell’s Melinda is warm, insecure to be sure, but confident in her own way and open to the friendship Hobie- who gradually grows to love Melinda- and Susan forge with her. In Pine’s story, she’s an old college friend of Laurel, a wealthy young married woman (played with depth and affection by Chloe Sevigny), and her cheating actor husband Lee (Jonny Lee Miller), who got in touch to try and find a place to stay months ago, but is just now getting in town as she deals with a messy divorce with her doctor husband and an even messier custody battle over their two children. Things seem to be going better for Melinda when she hooks up with sympathetic pianist-composer Ellis (charismatically played by “Dirty Pretty Things'” Chiwetel Ejiofar, a far cry from the potential viciousness of his upcoming role in “Serenity”), but tragedy always finds a way of seeping in. It’s in Pine’s story where Mitchell really shines, showing the desparate and suicidal tendencies of Melinda with a clarity that stands in sharp contrast in terms of mood to her most joyous turn in the Shawn story, and a poignancy that lifts her seemingly terminal negative worldview above maudelin moping. Woody cuts between the two stories effortlessly- it’s not as forced as some would have you believe- and devises some inspired scenes, like the scene where Melinda first talks to Ellis, the scene where Hobie catches Susan in bed with one of her producers, and the scene where Hobie goes out- after his marriage has ended- with a right-wing conservative with a radical outlook on sex (the sexy and funny Vinessa Shaw, who played the hooker Tom Cruise almost hooks up with in “Eyes Wide Shut”). The film sometimes slips into modern Woody tedium, but the overall impact of the film- and the performance it hinges on- is felt clearly. You leave “Melinda and Melinda” with some of your respect for Woody Allen rejuvinated, even if you still feel the sting of embarrasements like “Hollywood Ending,” “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion,” “Celebrity,” and “Everyone Says I Love You.” Welcome back Woody. Hope to see you again soon.
