Woody Allen's comedies were always shallow, and that is what made them great. They were based on the same Parking-space-NRA-I-could-buy-this-ring-for-less jokes. He never tried to make his films more than one man's confessions to the world. Then came his "serious" films all through 80s. "Wild Strawberries" as "Another Woman", "Anna Karenina" as "Hanna and her sisters", even "Crime and Punishment" as "Crimes and Misdemeanors". Here, his shallowness and simplifications made pictures uninteresting and pretentious. And then came "Husbands and Wives", his most underrated film. Here, Allen stopped going for big ideas, and made simple melodrama, so simple, that like his comedies, it came close to perfection. From Liam Neeson's semi-cameo to Judy Davis's crazy bitchfest, every character feels unbelievably alive. Dialogs are as funny as they get, and simple structure makes development of story incredibly fun to watch. Even much criticized hand-held camera comes off as a mean of Allen's new found simplicity. Every great filmmaker owes his audience a small nice movie. This is what it is--a small masterpiece.
Review of Husbands and Wives
