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Interiors is the point of departure and Husbands and Wives the revision, in the middle Woody Allen locates the sweet spot. The cozy Upper West Side cosmos and its terra incognita of fluctuating passions, contrasting neurotics lend the view from Thanksgiving to Thanksgiving. A showbiz family, the folks (Maureen O'Sullivan, Lloyd Nolan) are vintage troupers, the retired actress (Mia Farrow) makes for a selfless center. Her husband (Michael Caine) finds himself straying from her nurturing, "she changed my empty life and I paid her back by banging her sister in a hotel room." Said sister (Barbara Hershey) is seduced with an E.E. Cummings poem, and parts ways with the dour artist (Max von Sydow) who favors pronouncements about television. ("You see the whole culture: Nazis, deodorant salesmen, wrestlers, beauty contests, the talk show.") The third sister (Dianne Wiest) searches for her own spotlight in between gigs with the Stanislavski Catering Company, her match is the writer (Allen) whose latest hypochondriac jag has him at odds with Nietzsche's theory of eternal recurrence. "Great. I'll have to sit through the Ice-Capades again." The ultimate ensemble of tasteful Eighties gentrification, tinted an autumnal glow and lubricated with Bach and Rodgers and Hart. (A Doll's House is an acknowledged signpost, though Cukor's Philip Barry adaptations are a closer model for the easeful dexterity.) The novelistic textures still make room for an architectural tour of Manhattan and a circling camera at the restaurant, Caine "walks on air" in a besotted close-up and Farrow seized by doubt becomes a voice in the dark. Crucifixes and mayonnaise summarize the refuge of religion, nothing like a screening of Duck Soup for what ails you. "Maybe the poets are right. Maybe love is the answer." Yang provides the heartening appreciation (A Confucian Confusion), Solondz the acid caricature (Happiness). Cinematography by Carlo Di Palma. With Carrie Fisher, Julie Kavner, Daniel Stern, J.T. Walsh, Sam Waterston, Joanna Gleason, Tony Roberts, and John Turturro.
--- Fernando F. Croce |