"Melinda and Melinda"
Directed by: Woody Allen
Rated: PG-13
Summary: A woman's story is told in two different ways, as a tragedy and a comedy.
Showtimes: daily at 2:00, 4:30, 7:15, and 9:45 p.m. at the Dipson Theatres Amherst 3
It's never a good sign when a comedy isn't funny or a tragedy isn't sad. When the comedy and tragedy are both part of the same film and both get only a few laughs, it's a very bad sign indeed.
At least the premise of "Melinda and Melinda" is promising. A group of artists and intellectuals meet for dinner and begin discussing whether the human experience is better represented by comedy or by tragedy. The comedic playwright insists that humor is used to see past the inherent tragedy in life while the tragic playwright sees the drama and sadness of tragedy as a way to offset the general happiness of life.
Another of the dinner members proposes a story and they're off and running. Given a few details, each playwright develops their own version of the story. This probably won't resolve the philosophical questions of comedy, tragedy, and the human experience, but it makes for interesting dinner conversation.
The film intertwines the comedy and tragedy, though it's easy enough to keep them separate since Melinda (Radha Mitchell) is the only character who appears in both of them. Both stories use the details that Melinda shows up unexpectedly one night, becomes involved in the lives of the other characters, and eventually falls in love, which provides the framework for the comic and tragic endings.
The tragedy was more melodramatic than truly tragic. The main problem was that the characters were all dislikable. The viewer felt no empathy whatsoever for the unemployed actor who drinks too much and cheats on his elitist wife. Nor did the passionate musician/poet or the murderous, drug-addicted Melinda stir any emotion. The tragedy became a dull story about the woes of upper-class artistic snobs living in Manhattan.
In that respect, the tragedy and comedy were very much the same story. The comedy also featured irritatingly shallow and unsympathetic artistic types living in relative wealth and comfort in Park Avenue lofts.
Very few of the comedic lines and gags got any laughs, and the neurotic, childish antics forced on the character played by Will Ferrell ("Elf," "Anchorman") were actually tragic.
It was the characters, the dialogue, and the pace of the film that doomed "Melinda and Melinda."
For whatever reason, Woody Allen chose to have lots of witty banter and cultural references rather than actually write realistic, relatable dialogue. The result is a film with a superiority complex, making the audience feel like they are being condescended to when they happen to miss the references to Bela Bartok or fine wines or "Pygmalion."
On the other hand, the acting was exceptional and included the talents of Mitchell, Ferrell, Wallace Shawn, Chlo?Ae Sevigny and many other independent and mainstream stars. Unfortunately, with so many fine actors and two parallel stories to be told in a mere 100 minutes, the entire cast was wasted on underdeveloped and irritatingly self-important characters.
There is a certain amount of truth in the idea that as long as something begins well and ends well, what came in between is unimportant. One of the saving graces for "Melinda and Melinda" is that both the beginning and the end are quite good. The tragedy and comedy both end in satisfying ways with respect to the genres. Obviously, Woody Allen is a master at what he was trying to do in this film, he just didn't quite do it this time.
Overall, the film dragged. Even with three separate casts of characters each developing a different story in under two hours, the pace was slow. The characters were uniformly bland, yet portrayed by actors that made the film bearable.
If all's well that ends well, perhaps "Melinda and Melinda" isn't such a bad film after all.
