Movies - Melinda and Melinda

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	Movies - Melinda and Melinda

Melinda and Melinda is a 2004 film written and directed by Woody Allen. The film is set in Allen's favorite location, Manhattan, and stars Radha Mitchell as the protagonist Melinda, in two story lines, one comic, one tragic. The film received a "rotten" rating from film-review website Rotten Tomatoes and was a flop in North American theaters, with ticket sales were below four million dollars . However, reviews on the film's release were not all poor, with some critics, particularly in the British press, hailing a return to form from Allen. As was usually the case with Allen's later films it did better outside the U.S. and Canada, and its worldwide gross was $20.1 million.

The premise of the film is that a group of four writers are conversing over dinner. The question arises: Is life naturally comic or tragic? One of the four proposes a simple story (a distraught woman knocks on a door and disrupts a dinner party) and the two prominent playwrights in the group begin telling their versions of this story, one being comic and one tragic.

The film's dialogue between comedy and tragedy alludes to critical arguments going back to ancient times on the superiority of either art form and the reasons why audiences are drawn to either comedy or tragedy. The film's conceit on comedy----that people love comedy so much because it helps them to escape from the misery of the real world---alludes to the final message of Preston Sturges's classic film, Sullivan's Travels, which dealt with a comedic director attempting to make a serious tragedy, as he finds comedy trite and meaningless. However, the hero discovers that his comedies were more artistic and important to the world than any tragedy he attempts.

Given Allen's constant self-examination through psychoanalysis, the film can be seen as a dialogue between Allen comedic and serious sides on his artistic choices, or between Allen as comedy maker (as he is best known as a comedic director) and another, serious dramatic filmmaker (perhaps Bergman, the serious director whom Allen lionizes throughout his oveure)

Although Radha Mitchell plays Melinda in both versions, no one else is in both. Chloë Sevigny, Jonny Lee Miller, and Chiwetel Ejiofor star with her in the tragedy, while Will Ferrell and Amanda Peet star with her in the comedy.

The film also stars Wallace Shawn as the comic playwright and Larry Pine as the dramatist. Steve Carell has a small part as Ferrell's friend in the comedy.

Tagline: Life can be a comedy or a tragedy, it all depends on how you look at it.

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