Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17724 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-07-25
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
In Melinda and Melinda, Will Ferrell does a fine job playing Woody Allen--or at any rate, playing the fumbling, neurotic, lascivious character who appears in almost every Woody Allen movie (and is usually played by Allen himself). Hobie (Ferrell) is an unemployed actor who has fallen helplessly in love with Melinda (Radha Mitchell)--or at least with one version of Melinda, because Hobie's comic story runs parallel with a more serious version of the same plot, in which Melinda falls in love with a composer (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Melinda and Melinda is intended to be a sort of showdown between a comic and a tragic view of the world, but the comic story isn't all that funny and the tragic story isn't all that sad. You're more likely to feel annoyed by these characters than sympathetic to them, as they act more like Martians than New Yorkers; their responses and attitudes aren't exactly dated or implausible, they're mostly incomprehensible. The movie is still a step up from Anything Else, Allen's last effort; there are a handful of genuinely funny moments, Chloe Sevigny (as one of Melinda's best friends) and Mitchell are particularly good, and the turns of the two-fold plot--regardless of its genre--are engaging. However, these virtues will be best appreciated by those who are already Allen fans. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

Synopsis
Woody Allen mixes the tragic with the comic in MELINDA AND MELINDA, a delightful, intelligent look at two versions of the same story. After hearing a tale about a quirky woman who walks in unexpectedly on a dinner party in an apartment in New York City, Sy (Wallace Shawn) expands it into a romantic comedy, while Max (Larry Pine) turns it into an urban tragedy. Allen intercuts between the two retellings, intermingling cause and effect, love and romance, failure and success, as Melinda creates havoc in both fictional worlds. Each story has its own cast: the comedy features Will Ferrell, Amanda Peet, and Josh Brolin; the tragedy stars Chloe Sevigny, Jonny Lee Miller, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Radha Mitchell is the only repeat actor, playing both Melindas, and she does a tremendous job. Interestingly, the comic section is not a straight laughfest, like Allen's SLEEPERS, ANNIE HALL, or BULLETS OVER BROADWAY, and the more serious part is not nearly as dour as INTERIORS or ANOTHER WOMAN. Instead, Allen, who has been criticized by critics and fans alike for not making more funny films, has created two parallel universes that each combines aspects of comedy and tragedy, resulting in a wonderful, insightful drama.

Customer Reviews

Below par Woody Allen
Looking back at the catalogue of Woody Allen accomplishments it's easy to see some easily recognisable themes, notably meditations on the meaning of life. One of these is asking the question "is life absurd (you know - funny and crazy and laughable because it's so ungraspable that all we can do is laugh) or is it basically a tragedy (a terrible existence of pain an misery and despair, uselessness, disenfranchisement and suffering)?" Of course, the philosophers have been out discussing that one for a long time, but whilst that's going on, Allen has taken it upon himself to re-examine the issue on his own, by means of this film.
To this end, he hires a cast of familiar actors. Some of them are his own friends from as far back as Manhattan and Husbands and Wives, and some are actors from things like Silence of the Lambs and even Trainspotting. Allen traditionally recruits from either a familiar crowd or an under-rated minority of otherwise successful films.
Although the film's task is admirable, this one marks a low-point in Allen's distinguished career. He doesn't pull out the stops and some scenes are overtly badly acted out - an indictment of direction rather than the cast.
Will Farrell does a good job of acting out the neurotic Woody Allen as we've seen him in other, earlier films, but this alone doesn't and cannot rescue what turns out in essence to be a mediocre exploration of an interesting debate about the meaning and nature of life itself. On that level, it's disappointing.
There are some warm and comedic moments in the film, and so overall it is worth watching, but only just, especially if you're interested in the output of Woody Allen's career. Just don't expect too much.
I think the film could have been done better with a little more dedication and willingness, but the Allen star is acending once more with more recent output than this, and so I'll forgive him just this once.
This film is not a masterpiece, but worth watching if you're really up for it, hence the 3 stars.

It delivers :)
Is the essence of life comic or tragic? Can the same events give birth to a comedy or a tragedy, depending on the point of view? That is the central issue in this short but fairly original movie.

I don´t want to spoil things for you. Suffice it to say that “Melinda and Melinda” kicks off with a scene in a restaurant, where some friends are having dinner. Two of them are writers, but one is into comedies, while the other prefers to write tragedies. They start a discussion on the essence of life, something that leads one of their friends to propose a challenge: each writer must interpret some facts regarding the story of a young woman, Melinda, from his own unique perspective.

Truth to be told, both writers manage to weave extremely good stories that mirror each other but are at the same time quite different. The spectator is able to compare the stories within the story, and to enjoy the excellent acting of a uniformly good cast. I suppose I should highlight the splendid performance of Radha Mitchell, the actress that plays Melinda, due to the fact that her role was specially difficult, but I think that you will notice that as soon as you start watching this movie.

All in all, I really enjoyed “Melinda and Melinda”. Its premise is interesting, and it delivers. What else can we ask of a movie? So sit back and enjoy :)

Belen Alcat

Below average by anyone's standards
A few years ago, Woody Allen criticized directors who spend two or three years between making pictures only for many critics to respond that with the quality of his recent output, maybe he ought to spend more time honing his own material. They have a point. Certainly of late it's too often felt that he's a disinterested businessman fulfilling a deal that'll keep him ticking over until something better comes along. Case in point, Melinda and Melinda, an unfortunate misfire that, like much of The Mighty Aphrodite, feels like Woody Allen has taken a premise and just thrown one-liners at it in the hope that some of them will stick rather than properly fleshing it out. Unfortunately, in the mouths of a rather second-rate cast of (mostly) underachievers who never really gel with each other despite (mostly) giving technically competent but unengaging performances, both the dramatic and comic interpretations of Miranda's story feel stale and tedious - and surprisingly badly written. Maybe the two rival playwrights are meant to be palpably bad writers, but even that doesn't excuse the clumsiness of Allen's exposition and characterization here.

Sadly there's no single great performance to pull the film together. Radha Mitchell tries but, while her comic face is sporadically engaging, never really catches fire, with her dramatic scenes feeling too premeditated and overly prepared. Chloe Sevigny, Amanda Peet and Chiwetel Ejiofor are the more successful of the supporting players, but most, like Jonny Lee Miller, simply feel like they're third or fourth choice actors reciting awkward lines in a bad play rather than flesh and blood people. And it's getting genuinely tiresome to see his leading men doing Woody Allen impersonations instead of giving a performance (here a weak Will Ferrell). Worse, the film feels incomplete, as if a third interpretation, mixing tragedy and comedy to show how it should be done, is missing. Instead, we're left with a hole waiting to be filled while a disinterested group of thespians watch from the sidelines while waiting for a bus.

As usual per Allen, there are no extras at all on the disc - not even a trailer.