"Ten years ago, Husbands and Wives played second fiddle to Woody Allen's all-media split with Mia Farrow." - Ed Gonzalez

I enjoyed the ending, seeing all the characters revert back to their initial state and justifying themselves.

997

Miserable Old People: The Movie.

Woody gets pretty close to the bone with this one. Well directed: he even makes me like hand-held camera. Judy Davis is extraordinary (and very scary) in this, and Sydney Pollack gives his best performance.

A very mature study on human relationships with excellent performances and acute observations.

Middling Woody, which is still pretty good by most standards. The writing's really good, balancing insights, drama and light bits of comedy and some scenes are really well acted. Some others aren't so well acted, though, and the handheld camera during the non-interview shots is distracting. there was also something about the overall tone that turned me off a bit, but I can't put a finger on it.

It will be a true injustice if Allen's legacy is left anything short of the best cinematic voice on love and relationships. Through his whole filmography he's touched upon every insight to these concepts, often with brutal truth and wit. Anyone who's watched enough of his films have been hit hard by at least one of the subjects he's addressed, and Husbands and Wives is another that comes eerily close for me. The documentary style didn't work for me, but it's better than a straight narrator.

"Great - but nuts". Allen's description of 'kamikaze women' who crash their planes, but does it into you, is just one of many highlights in this dissection of what feels like his most biographical take on the modern marriage.