Woody Allen's latest film offers what purports to be two versions of a single story, as a pair of playwrights sit around a dinner table spinning alternate takes, one comic and one tragic, on the same basic scenario. This would appear to be an ideal framework for Allen, whose best work has always skillfully balanced those twin poles and whose entire career has often been reductively framed as a battle between the "funny/good" early Woody and the "serious/boring" later Woody.
Unfortunately, the movie never lives up to its intriguing premise, with neither of the stories featured in Melinda and Melinda amounting to much or dovetailing with the other in particularly interesting ways. Most problematic of all, there simply isn't much difference between what's supposed to be comic and what's supposed to be tragic in the two simultaneous narratives of Melinda and Melinda, other than casting comedian Will Ferrell (self-consciously aping Allen's patented delivery) in one of the stories, and some overly manipulative soundtrack music (nervous Stravinsky and Bartok for the "serious" story, jaunty jazz and Tin Pan Alley for the "funny" one).
Probably to no one's surprise, it all takes place in Woody's beloved Upper East Side, a place exclusively inhabited by clean, cultured and deeply neurotic New Yorkers, and a feeling of deja vu is inescapable. A game try, but definitely minor Allen. Also stars Radha Mitchell, Amanda Peet, Chloe Sevigny and Jonny Lee Miller.
Melinda and Melinda, (PG-13) opens April 1 at Sunrise Cinemas Tampa. Call to confirm. 
This article appears in Mar 30 – Apr 5, 2005.