Melinda and Melinda

In a New York restaurant, two writers fall into an argument over whether life is shaped more by comedy or by tragedy. To settle the question, they each spin out the same basic story about a woman named Melinda, who arrives uninvited at a gathering and upends the lives of the people she meets. In one telling, her recent divorce and her struggles with drinking play out with humor and absurdity; in the other, the same circumstances take on a much darker and more painful tone.

Woody Allen directed and wrote the film, which sits in the middle of his long filmography, arriving between Anything Else and Match Point. Radha Mitchell plays Melinda, with Will Ferrell, Chloë Sevigny, Jonny Lee Miller, Amanda Peet and Chiwetel Ejiofor among the cast, and Letty Aronson producing.

Released in December 2004, the film had a budget of about 16 million dollars and took in roughly 20 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.4 from around 34,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.2 from over 500 votes. A critics' rating of 6 out of 10 from 153 reviews places it close to the audience scores.