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Husbands and Wives
 
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Husbands and Wives

Woody Allen , Mia Farrow , Woody Allen    DVD
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)

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In 1992, Woody Allen and Mia Farrow--heretofore the Lunt and Fontanne of Hollywood on the Hudson--went public with a media-saturated battle over Allen's affair with Farrow's adopted daughter. Only a few months later, Allen released this film, starring himself and Farrow acting out a virtually identical plot line: an unhappy marriage begins to crumble when the husband strays with a much younger woman (in this case, one of his students, played by Juliette Lewis). It turned out to be one of Allen's most lacerating comedies, a story about the fragility of relationships and the foolishness of older men seeking to recapture their youth with younger women. It features strong performances by Judy Davis, Liam Neeson, and director Sydney Pollack, as a friend of Allen's who chucks his longtime wife for an aerobics instructor, thus planting seeds of marital dissolution in all of his friends' heads. Husbands and Wives provided an uncanny peek into Allen's image of himself and his personal life, despite all of his protestations to the contrary. --Marshall Fine

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Customer Reviews

23 Reviews
5 star:
 (15)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars ONE OF HIS BEST AND MOST BITTER, Mar 21 2003
By 
RMurray847 (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Husbands and Wives (DVD)
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

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Woody puts the "Fun" in dysFUNctional, Jun 10 2002
By 
Elderbear (Loma Linda, Aztlan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Husbands and Wives (DVD)
He's not happy with her, their friends aren't happy with each other, the friends break up, he flinging with his aerobics instructor, she, trying to indulge in an editor, while everybody self-consciously tells the viewers what they will not tell their (ex-)spouses. We see manipulation posing as truth, vulnerable facades imitating intimacy, lust mimicking passion, and discover, in the end, that perhaps the only true desire in a Woody Allen movie is to dodge happiness & to take pleasure in the misery of knowing that it probably wouldn't have worked out anyhow.

Confused yet?

I can't imagine anybody still in the "honeymoon" stage of a First Great Love appreciating this movie. For those scarred by years of relationship campaigning, much of Allen's view may ring all-too-true. I won't say how many times I saw myself, my wife, and ex-lovers plastered against the screen.

Throughout the movie, individuals and couples long for intimacy, for lasting passion, for refreshment, but end up settling for comfort, manipulation, and denial. I wanted to scream. I hoped, hopelessly, for hope--this is, after all, a Woody Allen Movie--but was left, in the end, with Gabriel (literally "God's Hero") telling viewers that love, romance, and passion can only exist as a neurotic and fleeting figment of experience.

Damned if I'm willing to settle for that. And perhaps that's the great strength of this movie. It could, after all, be a satire, not about mid-life-crisis-men seeking youth through young lovers, but showing, in the crassest relief, how barriers and little deceits ultimately lead to destruction and misery in relationships. And maybe that's where the hope lies, in learning to be honest in a way that none of Allen's characters can be, not even with themselves.

(If you'd like to discuss this review or DVD in more depths, please click the "about me" link above and drop me an email. Thanks!)

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5.0 out of 5 stars An intelligent, funny, and touching look at marriage, April 16 2011
By 
K. Gordon - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Husbands and Wives (DVD)
An intelligent, complex, sometimes very funny look at the ins and outs of adult relationships and marriage.

I admire the way the film works hard to avoid casting too much blame on any of the characters while not letting anyone off the hook for their actions either. Like all of us, these are flawed, very... human characters just trying to find a way to be happy in the thickets of marriage, divorce and love.

All the acting is quite good, although Judy Davis, while always great, and wildly entertaining, seemed a bit over-the-top on the ice queen meter, to the point where it was a bit hard for me to believe Liam Neeson's character falling for her.

Ultimately quite sad in it's recognition about just how difficult keeping relationships alive and healthy can be.
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