Main Cast: Radha Mitchell, Chloë Sevigny, Jonny Lee Miller, Will Ferrell, Amanda Peet
Release Year: 2004
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
While Woody Allen has long fused comedy and drama in his films, he embraces the two styles in a new and unusual way in this feature. Sy (Wallace Shawn) is enjoying dinner with some friends when they begin debating the nature of the tragic and the humorous. Sy, observing that a very fine line separates the two, decides to demonstrate this notion by showing how the same essential story can be either funny or sad depending on the way certain elements are handled; for the rest of the film, we jump back and forth between two versions of the story of Melinda (Radha Mitchell), a young woman with some serious problems in her life. In the tragic version, Melinda crashes a dinner party thrown by old friends Laurel (Chloë Sevigny) and Lee (Jonny Lee Miller). When she arrives, Melinda is distraught and under the influence of pills and alcohol, much to the annoyance of Lee, an actor hoping to impress a producer who is one of his guests. After a bad breakup with her husband, Melinda lost custody of her children and came to New York City, where she became involved with Ellis Moonsong (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a handsome and well-mannered composer whose promises to her proved to be worthless. Meanwhile, on the funny side of town, Melinda shows up dazed and confused at the home of Susan (Amanda Peet) and Hobie (Will Ferrell), who are in the midst of a dinner party. Learning about the sad state of Melinda's love life after divorcing her husband and losing custody of her children, Susan decides to play Cupid and fix her friend up with a well-to-do dentist. However, neither Susan nor Melinda are aware that there is another man deeply interested in the troubled divorcée -- Hobie. Melinda and Melinda also features Josh Brolin, Vinessa Shaw, and noted theatrical director Gene Saks. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Chiwetel Ejiofor - Ellis; Wallace Shawn - Sy; Josh Brolin - Greg; Gene Saks; Vinessa Shaw - Stacey; Steve Carell - Walt; Geoffrey Nauffts - Bud; Neil Pepe - Al; Larry Pine - Max; Matt Servitto - Jack; Brooke Smith - Cassie; Arija Bareikis - Sally; Shalom Harlow - Joan; Zak Orth - Peter; Christina Kirk - Jennifer; Andy Borowitz - Doug; David Aaron Baker - Steve; Stephanie Roth Haberle - Louise; Katie Kreisler - Director; Daniel Sunjata - Billy; Rob Buntzen - Antique Shop Owner; Michael J. Farina - Man With Dog; Alyssa Pridham - Acting Student; Quincy Rose - 2nd A.D.; Rick Vincent Holmes - Party Guest; Michele Durning - Party Guest; Yi-Wen Jiang - Shanghai Quartet; Honggang Li - Shanghai Quartet; Weigang Li - Shanghai Quartet; Nicholas Tzavaras - Shanghai Quartet
Credit
Tom Warren - Art Director, Juliet Taylor - Casting, Judy Ruskin - Costume Designer, Richard Patrick - First Assistant Director, Woody Allen - Director, Alisa Lepselter - Editor, Charles H. Joffe - Executive Producer, Jack Rollins - Executive Producer, Helen Robin - Executive Producer, Stephen Tenenbaum - Executive Producer, Santo Loquasto - Production Designer, Vilmos Zsigmond - Cinematographer, Letty Aronson - Producer, Gary Alper - Sound/Sound Designer, Woody Allen - Screenwriter, Robert Hein - Supervising Sound Editor, Regina Graves - Set Decorator, Ed Ferraro - Standby Carpenter, Ron Petagna - Head Carpenter
The premise of the film is stated by a group of four writers conversing over dinner at the beginning of the film. 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.
Cast details
Woody Allen said in Conversations with Woody Allen that he wanted to cast Winona Ryder in the title role but had to replace her with Radha Mitchell because no one would insure her due to her arrest for shoplifting which would have made it impossible to obtain a film completion bond. Allen stated he was sad because he had written the part for Ryder after working with her on Celebrity. In the same interview, he also claimed to have intended Ferrell's part for Robert Downey Jr. but again insurance got in the way due to Downey's history of arrests and drug abuse.
The film received mostly mixed reviews from critics, though Mitchell's dual performance was universally praised. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film received 51% positive reviews, based on 144 reviews.[1]Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 54 out of 100, based on 40 reviews.[2]
Box office
Melinda and Melinda opened on March 18, 2005 in one New York City cinema, where it grossed $74,238 in its first three days, the 21st highest limited release opening in Hollywood history[3]. In weekend two, it expanded to 95 theatres to gross $740,618, seeing its per screen average nosedive to $7,795.
Overseas, it grossed an additional $16,259,545, bringing its worldwide total to $20,085,825.
