Melinda and Melinda (2004)

Not since Gwyneth Paltrow's Sliding Doors has such a film drawn parallels between two sides of the same story based on cursory details. Allen tells the same tale of a beautiful girl with problems, one side his theatrical drama and the other a quirky comedy. Both stories center around a woman named Melinda, on one side a depressive, alcoholic mother who tries to move on but is thwarted by her weakness for romance, and on the other is a sweet girl who falls in love with a sad sack down the hall. Both tales are equally entrancing, and both show a side of actress Radha Mitchell that is usually blocked off. Though this is one of Allen's lesser known films and his more marginally eccentric, it is still a beauty. Much of the film depends on the actors attributed to it, and much like every Allen film he has assembled some very talented people. Most notably he put the extraverted Will Ferrell in a role where he had to be understated and likable as a romantic lead. Luckily Ferrell pulls it off with a sweet vulnerability that he rarely shows unless he plays a more childlike character. Putting in an appearance in the dramatic interpretation is Chloe Sevigny, who reads her lines exactly like Scarlett Johansson does in Scoop. She reads her lines carefully and delicately, which really irked me as the character came off cold and repetitive because of it. The film also drags considerably between the two intermingling storylines. It's pretty obvious that without the mirror image of the two different stories neither side could stand alone by itself. The comedy with Will Ferrell is certainly cutesy and considerate but it's mostly schmaltz. The drama is so dreary and obsessive that without the comedy aspect it would all seem far too cruel. This balancing act becomes nauseating at times, but when both end respectively it comes together well enough, even going back to the original narration, explicitly showing that destiny is real and reality is relative. It's smart, but odd.