Wow! Such a good movie.

Best movie ever!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Marion Post (Gena Rowlands) is a New Yorker in her 50s facing a midlife crisis. She's on sabbatical as the director of undergraduate studies in Philosophy at a women's college. She's renting an apartment to write her book in quiet when she notices that she can hear the psychiatrist office next door. She overhears a patient (Mia Farrow)'s desperate sessions whose words bring up issues in her own life. Marion is married to second husband Ken (Ian Holm) who has daughter Laura (Martha Plimpton) with bitter ex-wife Kathy. They had an affair while Kathy was sick. She starts to take stock of her regrets like a romance with Ken's friend Larry (Gene Hackman). Her brother Paul (Harris Yulin) and his wife Lynn (Frances Conroy) are getting divorced. Her father (John Houseman) is frustrated with Paul. In flashback, her father forced him to work at the paper box factory to help Marion go to a prestigious college. She runs into former friend Claire (Sandy Dennis) and her husband when an old issue resurfaces. She starts to wonder about her various calculated choices over the years.This is a movie about a cerebral woman. It relies on the integrity of Gena Rowlands' performance. She is a cold character but not in a cartoon way. Her regrets feel visceral like ones which are collected over a lifetime. She is a woman of thoughts realizing that her seeming perfect life hides wreckage of past mistakes that have been ignored for far too long.

Review: I couldn't really get into this movie. I found it pretty dull and depressing. I know that the main character is supposed to be going through a mid-life crisis, but it seemed very one toned and the storyline was all over the place. I did feel for the main character, whose played by Gena Rowland, because she didn't really feel loved by her husband and she lusted over Gene Hackman, but the film seemed to drag from one scene to the next. I was constantly waiting for something major to happen, especially with the conversations that she hearing through her door with the psychiatrist, but that just led to a dead end. On the plus side, the acting wasn't bad and the variety of characters were well put together, but I think that Woody Allen should have made use of Gene Hackman a bit more. In all, it's a deep drama with some some emotional scenes but it just didn't do it for me. Average! Round-Up: This is yet another project from Woody Allen which is based around troubled relationships and infidelity. It doesn't have any of Allen's typical wit or annoying one liners, which is a plus, but it could have done with a twist or something out of the norm. Judging by the amount of money that this movie lost at the box office, I'm not alone with thinking that this was a disappointing look at a woman questioning the decisions that she had made in her life. I'm glad that Woody Allen didn't choose Mia Farrow as the lead, because it would have been really hard to watch, but it still lacks a certain punch. Anyway, I'm not a big fan of Gena Rowland's movies so I wasn't that disappointed with the outcome. Budget: $10million Worldwide Gross: $1.5millionI recommend this movie to people who are into there Woody Allen movies about a lady whose going through a mid-life crisis and questions her love for her husband. 3/10

Woody Allen's ghastly drama is so uninvolving the viewer is left stunned at it's utter badness. Gene Rowlands is an academic writing a new book and finds that the studio she's renting allows her to overhear some painful conversations taking place in the psychiatrist's office next door. She soon re-evaluates her own life and realizes that she is not a good person and the people in her orbit hate her. There is snotty husband Ian Holm, underachieving brother Harris Yulin, bitter best friend Sandy Dennis and truth-telling sister-in-law Frances Conroy. Rowlands has so much thrown at her, it's a surprise she doesn't just kill herself. There's not a single sympathetic character in this whole 81 minute angst ridden treadmill test. It's cold, humorless and stodgy. It's a pseudo- intellectuals idea of a Bergman film that fails at every level. Pretentious and then some ---this film has to hold some sort of record for its continuous mention of poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Blech! Gene Hackman, Blythe Danner, Martha Plimpton, Betty Buckley, John Houseman, Philip Bosco, David Ogden Stiers and Mia Farrow contribute absolutely zero with their small roles.

Very much in the same vein as 1978's Interiors, Woody Allen returns to serious dramatic fashion with Another Woman, which like Interiors explores the inner workings and details that make up a family. In particular, this one focuses through the parameters of Marion, brilliantly played by Gena Rowlands as an icy cold woman who has managed for years to shield her true feelings and emotions from practically everyone close to her.Unfortunately, this begins to fall back into her lap as she talks with her step-daughter, husband and old friends and family who tell her that she is nearly impossible to communicate with and not very feeling. This comes as a shock to Marion and us; we don't notice it and how did this happen? Woody Allen is certainly one of the great comedic writer/director/actors of the last 50 years, but his serious dramatic turns are just as impressive. With the help of Ingmar Bergman's legendary cinematographer Sven Nykvist, Allen creates a mesmerizing canvas of dark, surreal colors and palates that give off a moody and depressing tone felt by all the characters, especially Marion. This is certainly a film only for true Woody Allen fans as it doesn't have any of his usual zany or self-depraved humor. Yet, what it does have is terrific performances by Rowland, Ian Holm, Mia Farrow and Gene Hackman as well as a solid script and direction by Allen. A must-see for any of his fans.