Somehow this Woody Allen film truly surprised me. There wasn't something I could outright point to and use as an exact example, but this film isn't the conventional Allen film and maybe not a conventional film on its own. Though Allen would later try to fuse comedy and drama with his film Melinda and Melinda, he failed
in many ways to be poignant with the drama and anything except quirky with the comedy. This film separates the two stories by keeping it between two completely different people and storylines. I think the reason so many people embrace this while not identifying with the bevy of his other work, is that it doesn't always fall into the obscurity category. Allen always makes his films about people and their morals, the way they throw them away for love, money, dreams or keep them and suffer. He recycles plots and characters with ease and that irks some people. This film cannot be replicated, mostly because of the tour de force performance from Martin Landau. Completely unrecognizable from his Oscar winning performance in Ed Wood, Landau is an oddly subtle yet extraordinary character, who lies easily enough to his wife and children while keeping company with an overly dramatic mistress (Huston) who has a dangerous wish to upend his life and reveal his frivolous affair to his do gooder wife. On the other end of the spectrum is Allen's character who is trying to get out of his platonic marriage and is hurt by the actions of a woman he loves but who is spending her time with a man he personally reviles. Much of the comedy belongs to the way Allen's character satirizes Lester (Alda) in a documentary he is making. Alda acts as a pretentious comedic genius who doesn't like being shown in a negative light, and seduces every woman with his fame and greasy persona. Alda is by far the greatest presence in the film and the loudest, while still letting Allen be the grieving martyr. Really, it's not that either storyline is better or less equal to one another, it's that they work so well together to form a film that wrenches a decent emotional response while still relaying the message that all crimes are punished and no evil goes unburdened throughout people's lives, while also showing the comedy in neurotic people's desperation when other people's crimes interfere with their happiness. It's so hauntingly good and yet unspecific that I can take so many meanings from this and be happy with them all. Love this Allen film more than many others.
August 14, 2010
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