Melinda v. Melinda

While the geek world debates whether to let themselves be disappointed by Episode Three, the swanky C.Park-flanking Manhattanites have a similar dillemma.

Should they bother with Woody Allen's latest film, Melinda and Melinda?

I say, no. Hollywood Ending was the last one I saw, and that was exceedingly disappointing. (Plus, A.O. Scott liked Melinda - which is a strong sign I won't.)

My g.f. says, yes. She pointed out that Variety, my barometer of mainstream-but-sensitive taste, endorsed it.

This schizo movie has been getting schizo reviews all down the line...

Allen's undisciplined sense of analogy results in an asymmetric set of romantic triangles suggesting that it is the presence of the Woody character that insures a comic reading. Neither comedy nor tragedy, the movie is closest to genteel soap opera. There are moments when Melinda and Melinda is a parlor trick, as worn and familiar as the magic lamp that serves a different purpose in each story.

--J. Hoberman, Village Voice

Woody Allen is back in fighting form with Melinda and Melinda ...

--Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

A second-rate comedy and a third-rate drama, Melinda And Melinda gives viewers two unsatisfying movies in one. The only genuine tragedy here involves a once-brilliant comedy writer plunging further into a seemingly permanent artistic freefall.

--Nathan Rabin, The Onion

So is the good Woody back? Are all these excercises in genre and art-house filmmaking homages a waste of a perfectly original talent? He was never going to be Bergman, so why must he continue to try so hard?

Moreover, a larger question about art and life, one that his late movies have scrupulously avoided: should we separate the artist from his art? I.e., should our collective moral disgust with his personal life finally win out over what shreds of nebbishy goodness he has to offer this time around, and leave us sitting at home, Netflixing Bananas?

And is all this soul searching moot, since his movies only make money in France now anyway?