Written & Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Mira Sorvino (who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress - though I think that she's the actress in the leading role in this film).
It is rare that I crack up after reading the logline of a film. This film is about a man, Lenny, and his search for his genius adopted son's biological mother - although she turns out to be a dim-witted prostitute named Linda. The logline itself has the structure of a joke - the setup and the punchline. Although the film builds on this, it's not entirely about this aspect. The film deals with Lenny's relationship with Linda - where his intention is to get her married and "settled" so that when his son grows up and if he seeks to find his biological mother - he won't be "disappointed". As usual, all the characters are multifaceted and contradictory. The film talks about choice - should we let people be who they're or try to change them according to our understanding of what's good or bad? Lenny is always advicing her "for her good" - to quit prostitution, and to even quit her dreams of acting because it's tough and he essentially thinks that she won't be able to do it.
When Lenny finds out about his wife's (obvious) affair, he looks at Linda as an option - or he doesn't. They just have sex that day, for the first time and I thought that this is the classical Woody Allen pro-infidelity, counter culture worldview. But in the next scene, both Lenny and his wife go back to each other and realize that they love each other. It felt forced, but until they build on this and ultimately pay off. Now, Linda has Lenny's kid and Lenny has Linda's kid - and both of them don't know about it and it's all even now. This was a genius and probably the best possible pay off the film could have with that premise. This film doesn't deal with the existentialism, and the philosophy that he usually explores within the world of the story. This film is funny, right at the one-liner stage, and this doesn't rely on jokes in between the scenes (we also have these).
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