Melinda and Melinda

A few days ago I wrote a review of "Akeelah and the Bee", where I commented that I enjoyed the movie, although there were several reasons to dislike it. I had the opposite experience with this movie. I generally like Woody Allen movies, it had an interesting premise, the acting was outstanding, and the movie addresses important issues of relationships, morality and modern life. However, I still did not enjoy this movie.

The movie begins with several friends enjoying a dinner in a Manhattan restaurant. One person is a writer of comedies and another writes tragedies. A discussion starts over the strengths and weaknesses of each form. A third friend begins to tell a story with a scene of a woman unexpectedly crashing a small dinner party. From this scene, the two writers develop separate stories, one as a comedy and one as a tragedy. The rest of the movie moves back and forth between the two stories. The plots are different, but have many similarities. Sometimes it is a little confusing, but it does not detract from the movie.

I like this premise; I enjoy seeing a situation being presented from different viewpoints. The world is filled with differing versions of the same events. Another interesting point is that the tragedy did not seem much sadder than the comedy and the comedy did not seem much funnier than the tragedy, but that is ok. Life is generally a combination of both anyway.



Radha Mitchell plays both Melindas, the woman who crashes the dinner parties. Once in the tragedy (see above photo) and once in the comedy (photo below). She is able to present herself as totally different characters in the two stories. The rest of the characters for each story are played by different actors. All of the other actors give strong performances as well. Woody Allen directs but does not appear in the movie. This is a good thing, the movie is about 30-somethings and Woody was almost 70 years old when the movie was made. Although Woody has made several films where he acts alongside women much younger than himself, he was able to resist it this time. Once again, this is a good thing.


Will Ferrell plays the lead male character in the comedy story. I was a little disappointed in his role, though it is not his fault. He plays the character that Woody has played in the past. Many of his lines are pure vintage Woody Allen lines. If I had never seen a Woody Allen movie before, I would have enjoyed his acting, however I kept thinking that Woody would have delivered the lines better. Once again, this is not a criticism of Will Ferrell, it is just that there is only one Woody Allen. No one can out-Woody Woody!


My chief criticism of the movie is how infidelity is treated. It seems to me that Woody Allen's movies often show a character that has had one or more affairs in the past, it has had disastrous affects of their lives, yet they can not seem to avoid entering another affair. Woody seems to be saying that affairs are normal occurrences in everyone's life, partners will always end up betraying each other and relationships will never last. Infatuation and happiness are fleeting, the majority of one's life is spent in relationships that are devolving and then spent looking for another partner to start all over again. Maybe I am naive, but I don't think that most of the world is this way. I understand that many people have affairs, however I think most people learn from it. I also believe that most relationships ebb and flow, it is not just a steady downward arc after the initial infatuation. Anyway, this theme depressed me and I ended up not enjoying "Melinda and Melinda".

On the other hand I enjoyed Woody Allen's latest movie, "Matchpoint". I did not find it's portrayal of infidelity as objectionable. It seemed like the betrayal was an abnormal event rather than a common event. Furthermore, I came away from the movie thinking that the main character learned from it and would not be likely to enter another affair. The ending was not clear-cut and others could easily come to other conclusions, but that was my take on the movie.