Melinda and Melinda

PG-13

Released Mar 15, 2005

1 hr. 40 min.

Comedy

Drama

List

51%

157 Reviews

Tomatometer

47%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

While dining out with friends, Sy (Wallace Shawn) suggests the difficulty of separating comedy from tragedy. To illustrate his point, he tells his guests two parallel stories about Melinda (Radha Mitchell) ; both versions have the same basic elements, but one take on her state of affairs leans toward levity, while the other is full of anguish. Each story involves Melinda coping with a recent divorce through substance abuse while beginning a romantic relationship with a close friend's husband.

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Critics Consensus

Woody Allen's uneven Melinda and Melinda fails to find neither comedy nor pathos in what seems like a rehash of his previous themes.

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Elvis D

Es difícil decir esto sin que suene tan duro, pero esta es una de las peores películas que existen. Lo único que puedo rescatar es algunos miembros del elenco y alguna que otra situación graciosa, pero el resto de la película es muy aleatorio y no tiene consistencia. Es todo una mezcla de situaciones al punto en que no se entiende que está sucediendo. Ni siquiera es graciosa, es bastante aburrida. No es una película romántica de esas cursis que al menos se puede disfrutar en pareja. Esta es una película que carece de sentido y coherencia lo cual la hace muy poco disfrutable y por eso la califico con un 3/10.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I found it great. Lots of tricky subjects. Discussing the "different views". I love the general experience and the overall theme.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

steve d

I have found many war dramas funnier than this.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The concept is very interesting the problem is that Allen can't let go of comedy in drama an viceversa. Enjoyable for Allen fans but general audience will find annoying.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

One of many films that Woody Allen has made that has an intriguing concept but is hampered by poor execution and the feeling that Allen is working with only the first or second draft of his screenplay. As always he works with a cast of distinguished actors and the film is set in luxurious townhouses in Manhattan but these superficial pleasures are not enough to rescue the film from feeling disjointed and lacking in any entertainment value. I struggled to stay engaged in the film as neither the comedic or dramatic elements of it presented as something to be invested in. At a dinner party one night intellectual friends discuss whether life is inherently comic or tragic and the two playwrights among the friends use different interpretations of one story told by their friend to prove their point. In the dramatic, the mentally unstable Melinda Robicheaux, Radha Mitchell, arrives unannounced at the house of her high school friend Laurel, Chloe Sevigny, and asks to stay. She reveals that she had an affair while still married with children and as a result of her actions lost custody of her children is not allowed to see them. Laurel is unhappy in her marriage to alcoholic failing actor Lee, Jonny Lee Miller, and when Robicheaux falls in love with musician Ellis Moonsong, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Laurel finds herself attracted to him. Their affair causes a breakdown of the marriage between Lee and Laurel and Robicheaux spins out of control. In the comedy, Melinda, Radha Mitchell, is the neighbor of director Susan, Amanda Peet, whose marriage to failing actor Hobie, Will Ferrell, is falling apart. Susan tries to set up Melinda with a man but she finds herself falling in love with Hobie who reciprocates her feelings but feels trapped inside his marriage. Unfortunately there is little to appreciate in either section of the film as the comedy is not very funny and the drama feels like something that would be produced for television. The entire film seems not to know what it wants to be as when they cut between the comedy and the drama it is hard to differentiate between the two. Ostensibly the comedy section is light and airy with a romance that should make the audience root for the two characters to get together. Sadly Mitchell and Ferrell have little chemistry and in the time that they spend together we are given no reason to believe that they would have genuine feelings for one another. The dramatic tragedy of the film keeps feeling like it will slide into comedy or camp at any moment and Mitchell's big scenes feel so forced and contrived that we are not emotionally moved. I wanted to care for either versions of Melinda but rather than disliking her or loving her I just found her slightly inconsequential. At the film's end we feel that we have been robbed of a real film experience and while Roger Ebert loved the film because it played with the form and made a comment on the falsity of films I did not derive the same joy from realizing this. I would have preferred to have seen a documentary about Woody Allen's writing and filming process than a movie that is essentially an unsuccessful experiment on screen. Allen has made better films about the writing process and especially the very brief section of Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) about Holly's burgeoning writing career was more thrilling and informative than this film. He should not have pursued this idea as far as he did if it was only going to end up like this or should have done more with the concept he thought up. Sometimes Allen's busy work schedule, he makes one film a year, causes him to make films that are rushed and look it. Perhaps he should have taken a few years off before making his next decent film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), because his work during this period is best forgotten. I find it unfortunate that this film's star, Radha Mitchell, never really took off as the leading lady she was being set up as with her being quite impressive in other roles from around this time and never reaching stardom.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The problem is not with the subtle script its with the actors being unable to show the distinction between comedy and drama. If you had Diane Keaton and Woody Allen in this then it would be no problem as they can do both funny and dramatic. Will Ferrell seriously miscast.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

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Woody Allen

Director

Radha Mitchell

Melinda

Chloë Sevigny

Laurel

Jonny Lee Miller

Lee

Will Ferrell

Hobie

Amanda Peet

Susan

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Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

Great premise, but talky dramedy doesn't deliver.

Rated: 2/5

Dec 26, 2010

Full Review

Ken Tucker

New York Magazine/Vulture

Neither version of Melinda, despite Mitchellâ(TM)s game try at making them distinctive beyond their different hairdos, is funny or tragic enough to fully engage us; thereâ(TM)s no opportunity for an audience to be moved.

May 12, 2006

Full Review

Ian Freer

Empire Magazine

It has great performances, snappy one-liners and a likeably tricksy structure, all wrapped up in an affirmative antidote to life's daunting complexities. Welcome back, Woody.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 1, 2006

Full Review

David Walsh

World Socialist Web Site

Melinda and Melinda simply sits there on screen, inert, flat, unmoving (in both senses of the word).

Feb 15, 2021

Full Review

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

While the main lure for audiences--Will Ferrell--is basically forgettable, Allen does compose one fascinating and witty look at the human mind and its own ability to depict events through our own sub-conscious preference.

Rated: 3/5

Apr 29, 2009

Full Review

Urban Cinefile Critics

Urban Cinefile

Reminds us there is little to divide comedy from tragedy, and that neither comes exclusively. After all, the tears of sorrow and the tears of joy both come from the same place, and dampen a tissue with equal intensity.

Oct 18, 2008

Full Review

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Synopsis

While dining out with friends, Sy (Wallace Shawn) suggests the difficulty of separating comedy from tragedy. To illustrate his point, he tells his guests two parallel stories about Melinda (Radha Mitchell) ; both versions have the same basic elements, but one take on her state of affairs leans toward levity, while the other is full of anguish. Each story involves Melinda coping with a recent divorce through substance abuse while beginning a romantic relationship with a close friend's husband.

Director: Woody Allen
Executive Producer: Stephen Tenenbaum, Jack Rollins, Charles H. Joffe
Screenwriter: Woody Allen
Distributor: Fox
Production Co: Perido Productions
Rating: PG-13 (Sexuality|Adult Situations|Some Substance Material)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 15, 2005, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 25, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $3.8M
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.37:1)

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