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Total Film: The Modern Guide to The Movies

Reviews

Aug 1st 2005 By Total Film

""Living is messy"," says Chiwetel Ejiofor's piano player in Woody Allen's by turns playful and pessimistic take on modern relationships - - a charming return from a director who seemed buried, if not dead, after his last four films. The set-up verges on smug, as dinner guests - - arguing whether existence is comic or tragic - - imagine the life of neurotic singleton Melinda (Radha Mitchell) as both laugh-in and disaster. But as the alternate realities play out and rotate, both involve and amuse, with - (this being Allen) angst in the comedy and chuckles in the tears. Will Ferrell's amiable Woody substitute provides heart despite the alienating framing device, while the one-liners verge from the obvious (""Of course we communicate. Now can we not talk about it?"") to the sublime (""Gorgeous dentist is an oxymoron, by the way"").