Melinda and Melinda

The new Woody Allen. A mixed bag, but overall very satisfactory. The premise is how one story can be interpreted in different ways so that one version is a comedy, and the other a tragedy. At the end of Woody's career, he seems to be going back to his roots, writing some really memorable comedy lines that would almost come off as elementary if they weren't so damn funny. In his middle period, the drama instinct really took over, and I think most serious film viewers would consider these his best accomplishment; but I think this latest piece shows that Woody can no longer write tragedy for shit. Hence the mixed bag. Half the movie was wonderful, and just popping! and the other half was a snore.

The most unexpected thing: Will Ferrell does a very convincing Woody Allen, and in good taste. Absolutely delightful! Not quite as eerie as the Kenneth Branagh, but more natural, and I think better. Definitely better than Jason Biggs or John Cusack, with whom you couldn't even figure out why they were cast instead of Woody, except that he was getting too old to play romance.

I'm actually a big fan of Allen's 90s-era movies, and I'd might say that most of my favorites probably come from this period. The beginning of the end (for me) was Small Time Crooks, and after that Jade Scorpion was good, but even I would have to admit that Hollywood Ending and Anything Else were either poor (Anything Else) or downright tragic (Hollywood Ending). Melinda and Melinda was almost as good as Jade Scorpion.