Melinda and Melinda

Released 2005
Stars Radha Mitchell, Will Ferrell, Amanda Peet, Chloe Sevigny, Jonny Lee Miller, Brooke Smith, Chiwetel Ejofor, Wallace Shawn
Directed by Woody Allen

Woody Allen's "Melinda and Melinda" begins with friends having dinner in a Manhattan restaurant. One of the friends is played by Wallace Shawn, who (Allen's audiences will know) has had a famous restaurant meal or two. Shawn is a playwright, debating another playwright (Larry Pine) about whether the world is essentially tragic or comic. They devise two versions of a story, which changes in details and tone according to whether it is comedy or tragedy, and the film cuts between those possibilities.

"Melinda" fails the standards of most audiences because it doesn't deliver a direct emotional charge. It doesn't leave us happy or sad for the characters, or even knowing which characters we were supposed to care about. That however is not Allen's failure, but his purpose. More than any other film that comes to mind, "Melinda and Melinda" says, clearly and without compromise, that movies are only movies. They're made up of thin air, the characters are not real, they could turn out however the director wants them to.

Summary by Roger Ebert

It's fun watching the two stories unfold along the same general storyline but with different characters and situations. It's odd because each time we switch to the opposite story, we're reminded the stories are being invented while we watch. Sometimes we even return to the storytellers in the restaurant. You might think this would make you feel like you're being being toyed with, but instead I felt like I was part of the creative process. That was the purpose of the movie, and it worked. The weird thing about it is you're periodically reminded that you can't be emotionally involved with the characters because they're just part of a dinner story. Like Roger said above, that's what all movies really are, but this one works because it shows us how it works. --Bill Alward, April 21, 2005