Melinda and Melinda

Melinda and Melinda it's really good. Not as good as the classics from writer-director, and usually star (not here though) Woody Allen, but much better than his last 5 or even 10 attempts, and I did like Anything Else.

We start with 4 people in a restaurant talking about life, and how it can be put into theatre plays depending on how you see it. Two of them are playwrights, one makes comedies, the other tragedies. During dinner, each of them continue a story, using the other one's genre, out of a real life happening that a third person at the table started as the opening.
There's a dinner party thrown by a young Manhattan couple to impress a movie producer so he would finance the movie they are doing. Suddenly, the doorbell rings and an attractive woman they know named Melinda is unexpectedly at the door.

That's the story, which then continues in form of comedy where the young couple is composed by Susan, a second assistant director and Indie filmmaker seeking financing for her new movie, and Hobie, a non-working actor who hopes to play one of the parts, which is perfectly made for him, in his wife's movie. Melinda is the neighbor downstairs.
In the dramatic take, the couple is formed by Lee, an actor hoping to get cast for a part, and Laurel, a teacher living Park Avenue's high quality life. Melinda is Laurel's long time friend who got bored and divorced from her rich doctor husband, tried to kill him, tried to kill herself, and even ended up in a mental institution.
In both stories, Melinda is looking for a job, while at the same time the couple is trying to get her a date.

Radha Mitchell plays Melinda, who's the only character is both stories, and she does a really good job in the lead. Specially in the dramatic turn since she has more help for the comedy. Still, I feel she's nothing extraordinary here and certainly not Diane Keaton.

Will Ferrell also leads as Hobie, with Amanda Peet playing Susan. Ferrell is truly a genius (it's no secret I think he's the funniest man alive) and his "Woody" work here is excellent. He does it perfectly and really funny. He also has one of his classic sequences of broad comedy though most of the time he's Woody. His chemistry with Radha Mitchell works really great. Amanda Peet is also very good, with Josh Brolin playing Melinda's brief love interest Greg.

Then Chloë Sevigny plays the third lead Lauren, with Jonny Lee Miller playing Lee. I've always liked Sevigny but I was nervous at first. She starts kind of not interesting to me and her wardrobe is very old lady looking which actually bothered me. But after a while she starts shining and I really liked her after a couple of very good scenes with Chiwetel Ejiofor who plays Melinda's love interest and piano player Ellis. Ejiofor is getting a lot of good critic for his performance, and while I agree that he's good, I think that the part was too easy make it good, and there's was no chance for him not coming as very charming and likeable.

I'm a Woody Allen fan, mostly because of my parents who are really big at that, and so I know his movies, I mostly like them, but I don't study them like some people do. Here I see the great writing by Woody, and I know this could've been an Academy Award hopeful performance by Will Ferrell if the movie would've been all about comedic story, though if that would've happened, we wouldn't have Sevigny and Ejiofor's performances which were also great and I wouldn't like them gone, so I guess the movie is great as it is.