Review of Another Woman (1988) by Stuart K — 01 Feb 2011

One of two drama's made in the 1980's by Woody Allen, this is a moody but atmospheric drama based upon Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries. Woody seldom makes films like this anymore, but he really should, as he shows great confidence with them, despite what he thinks of his own films.

This is about Marion Post (Gena Rowlands), a 50 year old philosophy professor, who sublets an apartment in New York to get away from it all. While writing the book, she hears through an air vent in the wall, conversations in a psychiartrist's office next door.

One of the patients is a woman called Hope (Mia Farrow), a woman who is going through alot of personal grief and is heavily pregnant. Hope's revelations to the psychiartrist make Marion reflect her own life, she's in a marriage to doctor Ken (Ian Holm), which isn't going anywhere, she could have gone with Ken's best friend Larry (Gene Hackman) but didn't, and she learns that people around her don't respect her because of her lack of feelings and emotions towards them, as she's never wore her heart on her sleeve.

Rowlands is brilliant in this film, and Woody does write brilliant female characters, and Marion Post is a very complex character. It's well made, but with an eerie mood about it, and it's well done too.

After this, Woody made more comedies for nearly 20 years.