Great premise, but talky dramedy doesn't deliver.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 26, 2010

Neither version of Melinda, despite Mitchellâ(TM)s game try at making them distinctive beyond their different hairdos, is funny or tragic enough to fully engage us; thereâ(TM)s no opportunity for an audience to be moved.

Full Review | May 12, 2006

It has great performances, snappy one-liners and a likeably tricksy structure, all wrapped up in an affirmative antidote to life's daunting complexities. Welcome back, Woody.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Happy proof that news of Allen's artistic death has been much exaggerated.

| May 27, 2005

The Shawn character says, 'Moments of humor do exist (in life). I exploit them, but in a tragic context.' Allen couldn't have said it better himself.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 8, 2005

It's middle-rung Woody, but compared to such dismal efforts as "Hollywood Ending" and "Anything Else," the movie is a godsend.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Apr 7, 2005

The tragedy portions confront the audience with awful proof of just how tedious the filmmaker has become, while the comedic version offers fleeting moments of escape and Melinda and Melinda's only glimpses of how real people live and love.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 3, 2005

The comic and tragic stories are cleverly intercut, but they're both so inconsequential that it's hard to bring yourself to care which one you're watching.

Full Review | Apr 2, 2005

Half works, and the half that doesn't work isn't so bad that it's not worth sitting through to see a Woody Allen comedy starring Will Ferrell.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Apr 1, 2005

It is a stunt, but at least it is a serious one.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 1, 2005

Overcoming the handicap of an overt, writerly device, Allen crafts a warm comedy and a painful tragedy right before our eyes.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 1, 2005

Sin City is the most gorgeous digital movie ever made. It represents a stunning leap forward in both the technology of digital cinema and the art of filmmaking.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 31, 2005

A step in the right direction, yes. A masterpiece, no. Still, it's a big step, one that at least bears comparison with much of Mr. Allen's better work.

| Original Score: B | Mar 31, 2005

At this point, Allen may be the only guy laughing at his jokes.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 31, 2005

Allen lately has grown tired of complex characters and inventive actors to play them. He appears to be making movies because that's what he's always done, but the love and the ideas and the zip are essentially gone.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 27, 2005

Comic or tragic, a story should be involving. With dreary, self-involved, characters who move around the plots like sleepwalkers, neither one of these stories is.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Mar 27, 2005

I couldn't buy that two supposedly sophisticated theater people could be so simpleminded about what defines comedy and tragedy. I also couldn't believe in most of the characters, including either version of Melinda.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Mar 25, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 25, 2005

Melinda and Melinda does have its faults, but it's plainly the work of a master filmmaker.

| Mar 25, 2005

The details are so complex and interconnected, it becomes more comfortable to let it all wash over you and simply appreciate the passing pleasures.

| Mar 24, 2005