Rating: 
Summary: Must See!
Review: I will start by saying this, to all the men and women who are in destructive relationships and they know it(!) but have been trying to fool themselves into believing that things will eventually 'work out', please see this film.
Yes its a typical Woody Allen movie, with his deeply intelligent insight into human relationships, but unlike alot of his films, I was actually angry when I finished it. This is no shortcoming of the movie let me tell you, but rather a shortcoming of people (myself included) in general. It was so hard to watch the characters in the film, Sydney Pollack, Mia Farrow, Juliette Lewis, Liam Neeson, etc...enter situations that they knew were doomed from the begininng, out of desperation and loneliness.
Obviously me feeling so strongly after the film shows that it is a subtly powerful film about human relationships and how stubborn we all are when we want something but know its not good for us. See this film please!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Watching people fight is a laugh riot?
Review: I'm a big Woody Allen fan, but this movie gaves me the creeps... Mostly, it is a series of arguments where the viewer feels like they're watching something very ugly happen right before their eyes. I certainly wouldn't call it comedy. I love every Woody Allen film except this one, I almost couldn't finish watching it; I felt so terrible when it was through.
Rating:
Summary: Woody's masterpiece for the Nineties
Review: In my opinion, probably one of his top 5 best ever. This movie piles it on deeply, and barely give you a chance to breathe. YES, the camera work is intentional and a brilliant complement to the mood of the film. The acting is spectactular. There are words to describe Judy Davis -- sexy, seductive, independent, savvy, and brave, come to mind-- but no single word nor any amount of words in combination are sufficient. Why Woody didn't get a directing Oscar nomination for this befuddles me. The documentary approach is always convincing and always fascinating. There are funny parts, but overall I feel that Woody really vented out a lot of frustration is this movie, Mia as well, and the audience gets to experience every bit of it. A triumph all around -- acting, writing, directing-- and for all involved. Way to go, Woody.
Rating: 
Summary: Relationships and What Happens to Them...
Review: It was ironic (or perhaps not) that Woody Allen and Mia Farrow were in the midst of a terrible breakup when this film came out. I only saw it recently, and it's one of those films that technically would never fly, unless Allen was behind it.
I enjoyed the partial-documentary sequences where the characters discuss their marriages, breakups, etc., and dark comedy that surrounds it all.
Sydney Pollack and Judy Davis are that old married couple you think would stay together forever, but they're breaking up. Woody finds himself strangely drawn to one of his writing students (Juliette Lewis makes the film!), who seems to get every man she meets on a string without even trying, Mia hooks up with Liam Neeson...there's a certain shallowness protrayed when it comes to people, and that really hit me.
Perhaps as I was going through my own marriage breakup at the time I saw this awhile back, it struck chords with me I didn't think it would. In any case, this is not a madcap Woody film. It's a sometimes harsh examination of how people deal with each other, and don't always realize what they've got.
You need to be in the right mood for this one, but it's worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: ...and why isn't this film on DVD?
Review: Leonard Cohen wrote, "We asked for signs / The signs were sent / The birth betrayed / The marriage spent." "Husbands and Wives" may be the best take yet on the all-too-familiar conjugal derailment. In a form of self-assessment that sinks Allen like a fondue stick into the Underworld of the Self-Involved, the film manages to make us roar even as it dices up its players, Allen included. Pollack and Davis are particularly superb as their characters' marriage unravels. All of their pent-up acerbity shoots to the surface and just floats there, each spouse becoming more rancorous, brittle, desperately buoyant, and (to us) hilarious. Only a master like Allen could make something so awful seem so funny. The biggest joke, of course, is on Allen himself, but the fact that he knows his laugh lines so well makes the movie painful to watch. Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, all is vanity--but nothing is more vain than the middle-aged man seeking to confirm his sexual viability with a young woman--one who is as hungry for approval and as self-absorbed as the man she sleeps with.
Rating:
Summary: Wince and Love It
Review: Never has a movie about relationships hit so many nerves on so many levels. It takes guts to view this film with an open mind. I takes familiarity with relational boredom and heartache to understand it completely.Woody Allen delves into the minds and dysfunctional lives of two and then four couples with the deftness of a ninja in "Husbands and Wives." Rarely have I seen such candor in depiction of the seven year itch. It is a place in time that will be familiar to many couples given the opportunity for honesty and will likely create interesting if not brutal debate in the most secure of unions. The hand held camera used in many of the scenes are not for those prone to motion sickness. Nonetheless, it creates an intimacy and urgency that grant the film credence at its most passionate moments. Each of the characters is someone that the viewer probably knows in situations that they would never discuss, leaving him both baffled and sympathetic. I highly recommend the film to those viewers able to be honest enough and possibly brave enough to face their most intimate relational demons.
Rating:
Summary: Shattering!
Review: Psychologically powerful and extremely clever. For a Woody Allen movie, the storyline is quite remarkably different from his 'Manhattan's movies of his search for the feminine. Here, he even add up a twist to his 'female-stalking' legacy by having himself being 'stalked' by a young female who is obsessed with him. And the 'jarring' and 'amatuerish' camera movements WERE MEANT to be there to provoke the feeling of chaos and distruction of the couples' marriage. A masterpiece!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing film!
Review: This film received a lot of hype (both positive and negative) when it was released coinciding with Woody Allens affair but this should not detract from what is a fantastic film. Brilliant acting from everybody. Judy Davies is superb as is Sydney Pollack but the best acting is by Lysette Anthony as Sam the aerobics instructor who steals one of the husbands. She steals every scene with a perfect American accent which hides her English roots. A must see!
Rating: 
Summary: Yada yada
Review: This is a carefully written drama, but to be honest I was mostly just annoyed by it. The jerky camera work nearly made me ill, and the characters seem like a bunch of self-absorbed losers who have no idea how to make any relationship work and who have lousy soap opera lives because they're all crazy, uptight New Yorkers who run around having affairs and seeing therapists. The overall conclusion of the movie is a hopeless one. Art house types might get off on the convolusions of this thing, but I never cared for anyone in it.
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF HIS BEST AND MOST BITTER
Review: This is probably the best of Woody's "bitter" movies (DECONSTRUCTING HARRY, CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS) wherein Allen continued to explore relationships with humor, but with far less of the optimistic, hopeful nature he shows in classics such as HANNAH AND HER SISTERS. HUSBANDS AND WIVES is crisply written and extremely well performed. Everyone is terrific, but Judy Davis and Sydney Pollack truly shine. They are married, but he dumps her for a very young woman. Davis finds herself on the dating scene again, but even as she goes on her first date, she is dealing angrily with her estranged husband. Mia Farrow and Allen are another disfunctional ex-couple. Throw into the mix nice, single man Liam Neeson, whom both women lust and fight over, and you've got a nice stew of relationships. The movie is VERY funny, but is tinged with bitterness throughout. Occasionally, the movie is presented as a sort of documentary, where the main characters are answering questions directly into the camera, but this device is a bit of distraction. It's a minor thing, though. Truly, the script is sizzling, but it is the performances that make this movie unforgettable. Judy Davis was nominated for an Oscar, but Farrow is very good as well, and it is a hoot to see Neeson in such an early role. Pollack could have been nominated as well, and Allen gives what is probably his last great performance (possibly excepting DECONSTRUCTING HARRY). Allen fans must see this film. It's one of his most important. If you're not an Allen fan, I suggest starting with a "kinder, gentler" film such as ANNIE HALL or MANHATTAN or HANNAH... before taking on this one
|
