David Frankel – 1995
Sarah Jessica Parker does a stand-up comedy routine for 90 minutes in this Woody Allen knock-off written and directed by David Frankel. A lot of people try to make Woody Allen films, but not all of them manage to get Mia Farrow to act in them, so that’s an impressive achievement for which I give the film due credit. That doesn’t make it good, though. Most of the time, Frankel doesn’t give you a single moment to forget that he really, really loves Woody Allen movies, which doesn’t give his film a chance to stand on its own. While Allen’s familiar situations and dialogue patterns are a stylistic choice that his fans enjoy, here they are made frantic to the point of bordering on parody. Characters relentlessly spew sit-com-like jokes and one-liners throughout every scene, until it’s time for the sad stuff, when everything slows down for a succession of heart-tugging cliches. It’s not all absurd, though. There are quite a few shot compositions that are eye-catching. And the focus on a central female character is a noteworthy deviation from Woody Allen’s template. The basic problem is that the protagonist is not very interesting or likeable. She rants and raves neurotically but with a superior streak that’s never endearing or captivating. Luckily, she’s surrounded by a bunch of much more intriguing and fleshed-out supporting characters, played by Farrow, Paul Mazursky, Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Kevin Pollack, Jeremy Piven and Donal Logue. All in all, it’s not bad as a light romantic comedy-drama, but it never satisfies the viewer’s desire for it to be a little better.
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