Possibly the End of the Line

I have not been one to bury Woody Allen. Anyone who comes up with three unassailable masterpieces in one career (Annie Hall, Manhattan, The Purple Rose of Cairo) deserves the benefit of the doubt. Until now. Of all the less than spectacular to downright terrible Allen films since the very good Sweet and Lowdown, Melinda and Melinda may be the most depressing. Allen has actually come up with a great idea - telling the same story as a comedy and a tragedy. The problem is that nothing funny happens in the comedy - kind of like Hollywood Ending and The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. The tragedy story does contain one great and two very good performances. Chiwetel Ejiofor, who was outstanding in Dirty Pretty Things, actually carves out a fresh character and has a scene of such simplicity when he meets Melinda that I felt as if I was watching a real moment between two people. Chloe Sevigny and Brooke Smith are also very good, although the material is so banal that I started to feel bad for them constantly giving their all only to be let down by the material. What is so depressing about this film is not that Woody Allen seems to have run out of good ideas, the problem is that he seems to have no idea what to do with the few good ideas he has.