I’ve always been a fan of Woody Allen’s films. Many funny, some serious, one thing that can be said is that they are always original and that his characters have some brilliant dialogue to offer. But not all of his films are the greatest thing since sliced bread.
I’ll be up front here and state that I like movies I watch to be entire stories. I want a beginning, a middle and an end. For me I want the whole shebang. Unfortunately this film doesn’t offer that and because of that by the credits I felt that I had been gypped, that I’d just spent and hour and a half waiting for a story only to discover that it has no end.
The tale revolves around several couples and their love lives. Helena Shebritch (Gemma Jones) has recently been dumped by her husband Alfie (Anthony Hopkins) after many years together. Alfie was having a late midlife crisis, fearing he was getting old and seeing that in Helena.
Their daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) is married to Roy Channing (Josh Brolin), a man who received his degree in medicine only to toss it aside to become a writer. After a well received first novel, Roy has had little luck with subsequent stories and is currently trying to finish his fourth.
But Roy is distracted by the new neighbor across the way from their apartment, a young woman named Dia (Freida Pinto). As his infatuation develops, the arguments with his wife increase as well. Then again since the two of them are living on money supplied by her mother, things naturally fall apart.
Sally takes a job at an art gallery to help pay the bills. Her employer Greg (Antonio Banderas) appreciates the work she does for him and realizes she has an exceptional eye when it comes to discovering new artists. The possibility of a romance creeps at the edges of their scenes together and we, the viewers, wait to see if she will follow in the footsteps of nearly everyone else in the film that seem to fall in love at the drop of a hat.
Alfie also has a new woman in his life. Sure she’s half his age, but he sees it as true love. After only two months together he announces his intention marry her. What he doesn’t announce is that she was a call girl he fell in love with. But with the help of modern medicine he hopes to have the son he always wanted.
Back to Helena. From the start she spends time with a psychic she puts all of her faith in, Cristal (Pauline Collins). While those around her see Cristal as just a con artist trying to take Helena for as much as she can, Helena sees her as a spiritual guide who predicts all that happens to everyone else. She even helps her to find a new love herself.
Are you with me here? This story is not as convoluted as you might think. The back and forth dialogue and story never get boring. The film is well made and entertaining in various ways. As a cautionary tale, it works. At other times as the lives of the characters unfold, it’s like watching a train wreck. Through it all the characters seem quite real. But is there no person in this world happy with marriage?
As I said, the major problem I had with this film was the ending. Actually I don’t even know if you could call it an ending. Marriages, divorces, problems with future plans and more happen but as I said by the time the credits roll only one set of characters have come to any sort of conclusion. The rest are in limbo leaving you wondering just what happened when the screen went to black.
Allen has been a big fan of foreign films, mostly those of Ingmar Bergman. His more serious films have always had that sort of tint to them. While ending a film without letting the viewer in on what happens to the characters might be an artistic leap, it left me feeling as though I’d been cheated out of a story. For those who don’t mind films that just seem to stop, there is a good chance you’ll find more to like here than I did.
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