MELINDA AND MELINDA

'Melinda and Melinda,' Woody Allen's 739th film, seemed to appear and disappear both from theaters and the public consciousness with hardly a blip. When it was noticed at all, it was generally by critics who compared the film unfavorably to Allen's career highs. That's a shame, because even though it does pale with Allen's greatest films, 'Melinda and Melinda' is a perfectly serviceable, enjoyable little movie.

The gimmick of the plot here is that the events in the film aren't "really" happening. They are simply stories told by two writers sitting around a restaurant table. One is a comedy writer, the other writes tragedies, and once they are given a premise by a friend the film unwinds as two versions of an often similar story about the fictional Melinda.

In both the comedic and tragic storylines, Melinda is played by Radha Mitchell, who does an admirable job of separating the identities of the two Melindas with more than just different hairstyles. Unfortunately, the tragic version of the character quickly becomes tiring. When she threatens to jump out a high-rise window, you almost wish Allen would write in the sidewalk splat.

In the comedy version of things, Will Ferrell alternates between a pretty decent Woody Allen imitation and the same old Will Ferrell with just the right touch of added sadness. Based solely on some of the houndog looks he's able to make work here, it's easy to imagine that Ferrell will one day pull a Tom Hanks and make the leap to roles with more depth. The rest of the cast keep things running smoothly, save for a number of clunky lines that most likely couldn't be saved by Brando at his best.

'Melinda and Melinda' strives to be a deep look at whether life itself is comedy or tragedy, but when it forgets these pretensions and simply entertains, it doesn't matter whether we're laughing or crying. We're caring, and sometimes that's just enough.

MAYBE SO (6/10)