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The film belongs to the genre of light comedy. It is a movie about life, love and perspectives (pessimism vs. optimism). Woody Allen uses a story telling mode and parallel plots as the basic narrative structure of the film. The 2 plots respectively portray a pessimistic and an optimistic Melinda (Radha Mitchell). The film begins with 4 friends who dine in a restaurant and chat about a meditated lady, Melinda. Voice-overs of some of the 4 diners are used minimally at the beginning of the film. The non-linearity of the narrative enhances the readability of the story as Allen creates 2 parallel spatial dimensions, linked by parallel editing (in which the parallel plots have no spatial relation), within the realms of the 2 diners' meditation.

Though there are different characters in the 2 plots, 4 elements are common to them: (1) Melinda as the key character (though in different personality and costumes); (2) the occupations (e.g., dentist, actor) of some characters; (3) the visual motif of the Aladdin magic lamp denoting wishes for a better future; (4) the characters' entanglements with love affairs; and (5) the same locale of the Bistro in which the 2 Melinda have a deep talk to her close friends in the respective plot. These commonalities serve to create a blueprint for narrative comparison between the 2 plots in which the respective Melinda has different personality.

The love affairs of the 2 couples in the respective plot (i.e., Lee (Johnny Lee Miller) and Laurel (Chloe Sevigny) in the pessimistic plot and Hobie (Will Ferrell) and Susan (Amanda Peet) in the optimistic plot) resemble that in "Closer" (Dir: Mike Nicole, 2004), though the mood is not as heavy as it is under Nicole's pen and the details are not portrayed in such a great depth (also admitting that the 2 movies are of different genres). Mitchell stages very well in assuming 2 roles of polarized personalities.

This slow-paced artifice from Allen would surely satisfy his fans. It is a good exploration of the decipherment of people's life and circumstantial factors as well as enlightenment on how one could manage setbacks in life in a light manner. Without any intrusive framing technique, the film runs smoothly and is able to convey what it aims at to the audience. In terms of framing, Allen only uses an abrupt freeze frame in the ending shot as the only cinematographic property in this film.

註：本評論純屬影評作者個人意見，並不代表本網立場。
Note: This views presented in this review is solely the views of the critic who wrote it and do not represent the stance of our website.

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