Review of Husbands and Wives (1992) by Elliott F — 18 Dec 2010

One of my fav Woody Allen pictures. "Husband And Wives" sort of reminds me Denys Arcand's movie "The Decline of the American Empire". You have two married couples and one of them makes a speech about a seperation. I think the reality is the married couple on the verge of seperation(Sydney Pollack, Judy Davis) feels they aren't competitive enough with couple number two)Woody Allen, Mia Farrow).

To Allen and Farrow this is a complete blow, almost where they feel threatned that their friends is breaking up. This is an interesting study to see how relationships develops through good and bad. It is almost amazing to see the Pollack character date a young woman in her twenties after his break up. It's clear he's just making up all that time that he's lost when he was locked and married. Now he feels liberated and free that he's managed to find his fantasy girlfriend, only thing is fantasies don't last that long...

But what about Allen and Farrow's characters? Judy(Farrow) is way to passive agressive. She insinuates herself to get whatever she wants and it's unbelivable that she succeeds. As for Allen? He becomes attracted to one of his students played by Juliette Lewis. I guess it's difficult for male teachers to be tempted by their good looking female students.

Allen is wise showing the conflicts within the relationships that it's almost sort of uneasy to watch. Only because it's happen to people in real life and in most relationships you gotta argue and debate and have emotional feelings because after all we're only human. I noticed the jerky hand held style Allen decided to attempt and although I didn't like it in "Manhattan Murder Mystery" the style feels right for "Husbands and Wives" and the documentary feel since all the characters talk about their personal relationships.

"Husbands And Wives" is a movie i've watched over and over and never seemed to get tired off. Sometimes I wonder and say "Is this what being in a relationship is all about?". So many consequences one can imagine.