Melinda and Melinda

Has Woody Allen reclaimed past glories with his new comedy drama Melinda and Melinda? Unfortunately not, but Melinda and Melinda is a little sharper than some of his recent fare (The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, anyone?), even as it riffs off his all too familiar template. The parallel narrative takes up with Melinda (Radha Mitchell) as envisaged by two writers enjoying a dinner with some friends - one specialising in comedy and the other in tragedy. Thus, in one strand we see a suicidal Melinda being rescued by her new neighbours (Will Ferrell and Amanda Peet) and proceeding to cause comedic havoc in their relationship and lives. The other one sees a wan, dislocated Melinda turning up at the home of her old college friends (Chloe Sevigny and Jonny Lee Miller) and er, proceeding to cause havoc in their relationship and lives...

As unwieldy as the narrative structure sounds, it's to Allen's credit that he manages to make it a diverting proposition for most of Melinda and Melinda's running time. Self consciously highbrow, the comedy is as sporadically sharp as you'd expect from Allen, but it seems the director still hasn't worked out how to direct actors (Ferrell and Lee Miller) who seem intent on aping his screen persona. If he ever manages to find the answer to that particular conundrum Allen might just have one more great film left in him. As it is, Melinda and Melinda is an improvement over recent efforts but still not enough to make unmissable.