AnhartLinkin
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
Voxitype
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Marva
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Marcus Andrew Legill
I have never seen a film that immediately brought me to an emotional state. I was vested in these characters almost instantly. The story unfolds slowly into what I believe is a very natural and very human tale of life,loss,wins,losses and regrets....almost Dickens' like in its approach with subtle hints of Hitchcock. I think this is Woody Allens best film. Full of melancholy and deep analysis.The soundtrack, a song written by Erik Satie, is the perfect background for what this film is trying to convey. 'Another Woman' could be played over and over again in order to grasp all of the main characters thoughts and feelings. This movie touched me...like no movie I have ever seen before. Excellent. Poignant. Moving. A must watch for any Woody Allen fan. I've been a fan of Gena Rowland's and this was one of her finest performances!
calvinnme
It is one of my favorite Woody Allen films. Unlike so many of Allen's films it does not star Allen in at least a subplot where he is a neurotic failure or at least a success at something nobody else cares about that practically talks his love interest (usually played by Diane Keaton or Mia Farrow) into rejecting him over the course of the movie.Instead, and probably because Mia Farrow was pregnant at the time, it stars Gena Rowlands as Marion, the dean of philosophy at a woman's college who is taking a sabbatical to write her latest book. She feels she leads a charmed life. She is in her second marriage to her cardiologist husband, Ken (Ian Holm). Ken has been married before too, and has one child by his first wife - Laura (Martha Plimpton), now a teenager, who has a good relationship with Marion. Great job, great family, good health, what else could a person reasonably want? The film is set in New York City because, quite frankly, I just don't think director Woody Allen would feel he was not in a foreign country if he got as far away from Manhattan as just New Jersey. But that's another story.Marion has rented a room away from home where she can completely immerse herself in her work, but unfortunately the ventilation system allows her to hear everything that is said in the psychiatrist's office next door. She solves this problem by putting two large pillows over the vents between the offices. But then she takes a nap, wakes up, and realizes one of the pillows must have slipped down because she can hear the conversation going on in the psychiatrist's office again. This time, though, the conversation interests her because it is a young woman speaking about how desperately unhappy she is. As she speaks on, Marion sees parallels between her own life and the what the female patient is saying. She peeks out the door as the patient leaves and sees that she is a woman who is in the last stages of pregnancy (Mia Farrow).The rest of the film is Marion basically examining her own life in light of what the female patient is saying about her own. Marion begins to realize that she has always closed herself off from any real chance at feeling, which is rather ironic when you consider she is a leader in the field of philosophy. She examines her first marriage to a much older man, a professor of hers at the time, and what ended it. She examines how she got into a relationship with her second husband, who was still a married man at the time. He had a friend who she actually felt passion for, and he pursued her with vigor (Gene Hackman as Larry), but ultimately she picked Ken, partially, she realizes, because Ken is as cold a fish as she is and Larry's warmth and spontaneity somewhat scared her.It's a story of a life examined at age 50, and of the inevitable regrets we all have because we can't pick the right fork in the road every time. I'd strongly recommend this one. It's even very good on repeat viewing.
sharky_55
Gena Rowlands' Marion Post is only modest on the surface, but it's so beguiling that she almost does not recognise the air of superiority and disdain herself. Her opening voice-over narration has a reserved, bored quality about it that, as if she has finally found herself a place to settle down and enjoy the rest of life. Then a simple technique; the thin walls of the therapist office give way to creeping thoughts about wasted life and ambitions and futility that are mirrored in her own mind. This leads to a series of reveals that are like a thread unravelling the seemingly peace and contentment of Marion's life and relationships. It starts with a timid question with her 2nd husband whom we understand has not slept with her for quite some while. And we feel that this sort of introspection has not breached Marion's mind for a long time; she has been too haughty, too dismissive, too self centred and confident in her appearance. She has slowly eroded any sense of respect from her 1st marriage, but oh, it was only under the guise of being honest! And she is a home-wrecker too - there is that icy interruption of a gathering by the ex-wife Cathy that is reminiscent of Bergman, and it is so cold in the way that Ken shushes her emotional breakdown in the politest way. Marion sees this in her own way; not the emotional distress of Cathy, but worrying that it might someday be her in that situation (and she is eventually correct). One thing that isn't honest at all is Rowlands' performance. Her mask of genuineness is put on in almost every social gathering, but there is a hint of this stalker-like presence, as if each quietly absorbed word is being filtered through her ego. There is a brief scene at a restaurant when she is having dinner with her friends and a former student of hers confesses that she has changed her life. Rowlands' reaction is just perfect; a hint of modesty, a fluttering of the eyes, and though she is proud, there is also a semblance of shame, as if she has never ever had that sort of effect on anyone that was actually close or important to her. There are also these dream sequences that indicate her mind is filled with regret. These aren't the most subtle of Allen's scenes, but when is this emotion ever slight? Gene Hackman's Larry is the lost love, the one that got away, and there is also a wondering of what might have eventuated of an abortion borne out of an affair with a professor (and how the edit seamlessly transfers an older Marion into the worries). Two things signals her eventual change. One, how she notifies the therapist of the 'acoustic oddness' because she is no longer fretting about hearing these so familiar thoughts of pessimism. And two, the little chapter at the end from Larry, which is the first instance of a positive memory of Marion in the entire film. It offers a sweet, lovestruck perspective, as if it were not too late to start over, and that even at 50, such an emotion could be sought once more.
gridoon2018
"Another Woman" is not the easiest Woody Allen film to get into. It has some fine moments of observation, it allows several members of its outstanding cast a chance in the spotlight, and it comes to a beautiful, almost cathartic ending. But it often is as stuffy, suffocating and mannered as the type of character and lifestyle that it purports to condemn. Woody Allen is the master of balancing comedy with drama, as he has shown multiple times in his career; "Another Woman" represents one of the few times that he completely removes almost every ounce of comedy. Two years later, he made a film ("Alice") that dealt pretty much with the same themes as "Another Woman", but because he allowed comedy - and fantasy - back into it, without sacrificing some dead-serious moments, the result was more varied and more satisfying, to me at least. **1/2 out of 4.
