Melinda and Melinda

By: Mark Runyon in On DVD on Oct. 27, 2005
PM Rating System

Grade: B | Genre: Comedy/Tragedy
Summary: This is a clever film that shows how a person’s outlook on life can influence their destiny.

Woody Allen is such an interesting creature. He’s an exceptional filmmaker whose collective work has left an undeniable imprint on film. He has turned conversation into an art form, paving the way for films like Before Sunrise and Metropolitan. For all his accolades, Woody has been in one hell of a slump. I mean Anything Else, Hollywood Ending, Everyone Says I Love You — a musical Woody, really? The last truly noteworthy film he made was Mighty Aphrodite and that was ten years ago. How does he keep getting A list actors to sign on for his projects and have the seats fill up at the art room movie houses? Simple. Because he’s Woody Allen and when he’s brilliant, he’s three shades of mesmerizing. Melinda and Melinda seems to be just the film to snap that ugly streak by tossing us a dash of that captivating brilliance that we’ve been starving for.


This story and his method of telling it are very intriguing. We slip in as a careful observer of four people finishing up their dinner after a show discussing the merits of comedy and tragedy as it pertains to our lives. The two gentlemen are playwrights, yet one focuses on comedy while the other on tragedy. Each is trying to establish his point that the world is colored in the shade that he sees it. A third gentleman interjects a story that he’d recently heard regarding an uninvited dinner party guest named Melinda (Mitchell). Though he told one story, each man had a different interpretation of Melinda. They each grab a hold of the story’s baton to relay what they believe happens next — one coloring Melinda as a tragic figure and the other as a free-spirited girl simply in need of love.

Melinda and Melinda
Melinda and Melinda
Starring: Radha Mitchell, Will Ferrell, Amanda Peet, Chloe Sevigny, Josh Brolin and Jonny Lee Miller
Director: Woody Allen
Buy Melinda and Melinda

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