Melinda And Melinda (12A)

Comedy (2004)
99mins US

Starring: Radha Mitchell, Will Ferrell, Amanda Peet, Chloe Sevigny, Jonny Lee Miller
Director: Woody Allen
Listings: London | Rest of UK and Ireland

A film quite literally of two halves - one comedy, the other tragedy - Woody Allen's latest battle of the sexes revolves around the beautiful yet emotionally fragile Melinda. In one version of the story, old college friend Laurel and husband Lee introduce Melinda to possible male dates with dire consequences for their own relationship. In the other version, Melinda moves in with college friend Susan and husband Hobie. He falls madly in love with Melinda and sets about thwarting his wife's attempt to pair Melinda off.

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LondonNet Film Review

Another New York Shtick
Melinda and Melinda puts Woody Allen back on the same old map

If you're a still Woody Allen fan, then you can't go wrong. Melinda and Melinda brings everything Woody Allen into the present, same for same, save for Will Ferrell.

In the Woody Allen version of Sliding Doors, Melinda and Melinda circles a group of film enthusiasts at dinner, squabbling over the power of comedy versus tragedy. Their banter launches into two side-by-side stories of the same woman, Melinda, as she vaults from tragedy, to comedy, and back again. As her two lives unfold, the question is begged as to which of Melinda's life has more meaning - the comic, or the tragic?

In the same-old way that Woody Allen does it, the film is bursting with long-winded dialogues, the thick-clicking tongue of Melinda (Radha Mitchell), and that zany Woody Allen appeal that includes lots of hand-gestures. For all its WA appeal, however, the only really redeeming quality is its strange casting order. Will Ferrell launches into a proper NY shtick, although still peppering-in his necessary ratio of one-liners (Ferrell groupie Steve Carell offers a cameo), and Amanda Peet is shrill yet somehow charming. Shalom Harlow appears at a dinner party, and Radha Mitchell jumps back and forth somewhat seamlessly from Mentally Unwell Melinda to Delightfully Erratic Melinda, although the overly rehearsed cigarette-ash-cigarette-long-sob-story-gulping-wine is overwhelming, at times.

All in all, if Woody Allen is what you're looking for, then this is what you'll get. Get in line for Melinda and Melinda if you're already a fan, and sit back and sigh if you're not: this is Woody Allen at his usual.

Megan M. Retka