Melinda and Melinda (2004)

This is an astonishingly bad movie, except this isn't that astonishing anymore, given the quantity of bad movies 2004 has poured out on us. With absolutely no cinematic expression, it feels like a radio play that has been filmed. The dialogue comes straight from the cliché factory, except no one uses lines like these anymore, not even as clichés ("Mahler's 2nd makes me cry" and so forth...). I wonder where this screenwriter picks the real life models for these characters. They must be a truly weird bunch if they talk remotely like that... The comic story is miserably unfunny, and the movie is plagued with one-liners that sound like left-overs from a stand up act. One hour and forty odd minutes of pure, unflinching torture. 

Rating: 14 (upgraded after a second viewing -- see new review on the November 14, 2006 posting) 

Note from November 14, 2006: I take almost everything I said in this review back (it does not look like a radio play; the unrelenting stream of dialogue sure kept me from appreciating its correct and sometimes brilliant -- as far as the pan-and-scan copy I saw it in allows me to assess this -- cinematography and competent production design); and what I don't take back (the characters are artificial, and the comic story is not so funny) I give a different dimension now: this is not meant to be a character study or a laugh-out-lout farce; read the new review on the November 14, 2006 posting. Sorry, blame my wrong first assessment on exhaustion.