Husbands and Wives

Buy This Item Husbands and Wives by Sony Pictures  Available from Amazon  $21.99  on 8-31-2008     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. <i>Husbands and Wives</i> provided an uncanny peek into Allen's image of himself and his personal life, despite all of his protestations to the contrary. <I>--Marshall Fine</I> Reader Reviews Complicated relationships (Annie Hall) and the romantic folly of May-December relationships (Manhattan) are familiar themes in Woody Allen's movies. His films confront the subject relationships with a depth not typically found in Hollywood releases. Allen's 1992 film, Husbands and Wives is a perfect example. Shot in cinéma-vérité-style, the film tells the "bleakly nihilistic" story of two long-married couples, Jack (Sydney Pollack) and Sally (Judy Davis), and Gabe (Allen) and Judy (Mia Farrow). When Jack and Sally announce their plans to divorce, Gabe is shocked and Judy is devastated with the news. They assumed their friends were happy in their marriage, but soon discover that many "rational" relationships are not as perfect as they seem on the surface. As a result of their friends' separation, Judy asks Gabe if he ever fantasizes about other women. Truth be told, Gabe is an English professor, who admires one of his 20-year-old students, Rain (Juliette Lewis). They develop a friendship. Jack begins a relationship with Sam, a hard-bodied aerobics trainer, who is perfect except for the fact that she believes in astrology (much to Jack's embarrasment). Gabe confesses to Jack that his new girlfriend is a "cocktail waitress." Meanwhile, Sally meets Michael (Liam Neeson). The ultimate wisdom of Allen's brilliant film is that life is filled with endless romantic dreams and possibilities, but only real love allows us to see through all the illusions and to accept another's imperfections. This is one of my favorite Woody Allen films. G. Merritt

Husbands and Wives Available from Amazon Price: $21.99 Updated on 8-31-2008.

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