r
ycilo-r\v\Too
is comii\gpto
(Radha Mitchell) drops in on college
friend Laurel (Chloe Sevigny) and
actor husband Lee (Jonny Lee
Miller), interrupting their dinner
party with a tale of a broken marriage
in St. Louis, a lost custody battle and
a drinking problem.
The couple let Melinda stay with
them while she gets her life in order,
even as theirs are slowly coming
apart. In typical Allen style, what
unfolds is messy and absurd, but not
grim.
The comic saga begins in similar
fashion, with downstairs neighbor
Melinda (Mitchell again) barging in
on a dinner party that filmmaker
Susan (Amanda Peet) and actor hus-
band Hobie (Ferrell) are throwing for
a prospective investor. This opening
also develops into a rumba of con-
cealed feelings, frustrated ambition
and changed partners.
Allen quickly erases the distinction
between the two storylines, so that
the "tragic" tale is suffused with gen-
tle humor and the "comic" narrative
has acres of angst. His theme isn't
that there is a thin line between
laughter and tears but that the inter-
pretation of events is in the eye of the
beholder.
Alas, it is human nature that our
immersion in our own circumstances
prevents us from seeing the humor
and ridiculousness that are obvious to
others. It may not be Chekhov — or
even vintage Woody — but it's not
bad.
Unfortunately, the casting of
Mitchell as both Melindas — com-
bined with forgettable performances
by the nondescript supporting play-
ers, except for Sevigny — makes it
difficult to regain our bearings every
time the stories switch.
Yet Melinda and Melinda gives
hope that Allen still has one or two
great movies in him.
This is his best-looking picture in
years, thanks to the rich amber hues
achieved by veteran cinematographer
Vilmos Zsigmond (McCabe and Mrs.
Miller).
And while it's not a completely sat-
isfying film — or even a Jewish one
— it has flashes of inspiration. For
Woody fans who endured his last
three duds, that's enough. ❑
HOLLYWOOD'S HOLOCAUST
from page 46
Interestingly enough, television,
via plays and even game shows like
This Is Your Lift, were the main out-
lets for any depiction of the
Holocaust during the upbeat 1950s.
The dam somewhat broke with
Sidney Lumet's film The Pawnbroker
in 1965. Lumet's "quick flashback"
approach to the memories of a
Holocaust survivor mirrored the
beginnings of memory returning to
the general public.
The dam really broke with the tel-
evision mini-series Holocaust, which
aired in 1980. Anker's film covers
the criticism of the series: It was just
too much a soap opera.
However, Holocaust got huge rat-
ings in America and Europe and
caused thousands of survivors to
begin to tell their stories.
Anker goes on to cover, in some
depth, the more realistic and graphic
depictions of the Holocaust in the
miniseries War and Remembrance
and in Spielberg's Schindler's List.
The film doesn't shy away from
addressing the moral dilemmas
about making any film on the
Holocaust; just about every intervie-
wee addresses the subject.
The impressive list of commenta-
tors includes directors Steven
Spielberg, Sidney Lumet and Dan
Curtis, as well as film historian Neal
Gabler and Holocaust experts Thane
Rosenbaum and Michael
Berenbaum.
Particularly effective are comments
by survivors like producer Branko
Lustig and actor Robert Clary. The
narration is by Gene Hackman. ❑
Bill/1111\g lam
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Melinda and Melinda, rated PG-
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