Post by StevePulaski on Dec 4, 2017 22:20:07 GMT -5
Husbands and Wives (1992)
Directed by: Woody Allen
Directed by: Woody Allen
Mia Farrow and Woody Allen.
Rating: ★★★½
NOTE: Part of "Woody Allen Mondays," an ongoing movie-watching event.
Husbands and Wives opens by letting us know what we're in for without hesitation. We watch Gabe and Judy (Woody Allen and Mia Farrow), a married couple, prepare to host their friends Jack and Sally (Sydney Pollack and Judy Davis), also married, at their apartment. Gabe laments the fact that no student he teaches will learn the craft of writing if they were not possessed the very trait from birth as Carlo Di Palma's camera zigs and zags, racing to keep up with the shifty couple as they pace around the room in anticipation of their guests' arrival. Finally, when Jack and Sally do arrive, they follow their warm tidings with news of their separation. They appear as amicable as any separating couple about to go to a restaurant with their longtime friends, but this news sends Gabe and Judy into a tailspin of questions and panic. "You guys were perfect for each other!" "If you guys are separating, what does that mean for the rest of us?"
The film then follows the subsequent relationship excursions of the four individuals as they try and relive the days before they became stagnant and unhappy in what they perceive as a faltering marriage. Jack starts dating a perky aerobics instructor (Lysette Anthony) with the figure of a Playboy bunny, much to his delight, while Judy and Sally make the life of Michael (Liam Neeson with his native Irish tongue), one of Judy's friends, that much more interesting. Gabe, initially appalled by Jack leaving Sally for a much younger woman, begins seeing Rain (Juliette Lewis), a beautiful 20-year-old woman with an attachment to neurotic males. Despite Gabe's early assurance to Judy that he wasn't meaningfully attracted to his understudies, the same bug that bites Jack has bitten him as well; the bug that prompts many men to cheat with younger, perkier women that effectively make them realize how "shrill" and "evil" their wives have become.
Allen's film comes hot on the heels of his friendship/partnership with Mia Farrow coming to an end after thirteen years. It was a friendship that never became a marriage, as some people falsely believe, but a working one where both parties could be independent yet mutually content with aiding one another's projects. Allen and Farrow's working relationship spanned 13 films over 12 years, and led to Allen being a father figure to several of her children until it all ended with contempt over Allen's relationship with Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn. Husbands and Wives feels like an apology on behalf of that fiasco that still finds its way into the headlines decades after it was initially reported to spark more controversy; it comes as a belated realization for Allen that plays to the tune of a confessional as well as a sendoff to an old friend whose love and support will never be forgotten.
It's difficult to talk about Husbands and Wives without dissecting the barrage of relationships before us, so that's exactly what I plan to do. The most intriguing aspect of Husbands and Wives is the way Allen positions the men in the film in contrast to the women. Gabe and Jack are both motivated by image and their partner's undying support. They want the thrill and envy of dating a youthful, spry woman who supports them and their work without question — a common desire of the male artist. As mentioned, Gabe is at first combative with Judy when she suggests that he is attracted to the younger women he teaches, but his words mean nothing in the face of his actions when he becomes involved with Rain. Jack, on the other hand, wants the aesthetic of being with a younger woman because he himself is obsessed with a youthful woman's beauty. As soon as he finds romance with one after separating with Judy, he proclaims he hasn't felt this way in years and condemns his wife for being so smothering: "with my wife," he tells Gabe, "I always felt like I was taking an audition." At first when he's with a woman roughly half his age, he's not only got the gig but he's getting residuals as well. But anyone with any considerable foresight can tell that Jack is doomed from the start because his relationship is based on fantasy as opposed to reality. This is why casual conversation and clear evidence of an age-gap at a party leads to Jack turning hostile, abusing his girlfriend before the party-guests and threatening her safety when she cries for help. They're both in the midst of meltdowns, her for seeing what Jack is really like and Jack for seeing what this situation has become thanks to his worst tendencies.
The desires of Judy and Sally come from a marriage where sex has become sporadic, as has romance, and routine has taken over spontaneity and passion. Judy is the one moping when telling Gabe the two of them do not have sex like they once did, something that is clearly burdening her and contributing to her low self-esteem at the moment, and later, all Gabe can say is how he misses when the two used to stay up late at night and watch Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries. These are two different kind of romantic wavelengths that have taken separate courses since they said "I do." While Judy is seeking romance, Sally is seeking a romantic, which is why the handsome and honest Michael is such an attractive option.
As you can expect, Allen gently undercuts some of the loftier moments with ones that hold a great deal of comic weight. One of my personal favorites involves the charming Rain, who reads Gabe's manuscript while she's out one day, and in the middle of praising it before him, she realizes she's left it in the back of the cab she took home. Gabe is devastated, despite quick to talk about how disappointed he was in it, but must conceal his heavy emotions in effort to console a sobbing Rain. When the problem is solved, Rain has no problem nitpicking Gabe's tendency to cast his female characters in a very misogynistic light as well as highlight other shortcomings in his pedestrian romance novel. Only Allen could write material this intellectually petty.
Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives is one of his sharpest and brightest films, experimental in a notably different way when compared to the likes of Zelig, as it adopts a documentary-style that interjects on-camera interviews with the characters in the middle of unfolding drama. The crafty sensibilities of Allen in conjunction with the humor and insight-laden script that devotes an equitable amount of time to every major character in the film provide us with a comprehensive look at why marriages so often go south. There's a closeted individualism in many marriages that even the most honest and open couples hesitate to admit; it's the "me" that's hidden in the "we." Many of us are looking for relationships that affirm ourselves as individuals hungry for confirmation and emotional mutuality while remaining laissez-faire when the collective needs attention. Allen once again finds away to attack a common, unspoken detail present in marriage with the kind of comic precision and deftness that has made him the cinematic treasure he is.
Starring: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Sydney Pollack, Judy Davis, Liam Neeson, Juliette Lewis, Lysette Anthony, and Blythe Danner. Directed by: Woody Allen.