Another Woman (1988)

That was an excellent one.

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

One of my all time favorites.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

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.

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

Right now, it's just as if I was experiencing the same mental block than the main protagonist, Marion, played by Gena Rowlands in Woody Allen's "Another Woman".I guess I don't want to pollute the review with formulaic superlatives, to make it sound like some pompous intellectual movie, when it's more than that … and while my brain is trying to pull thoughts together, I can't get off my mid the enigma of Marion. Here is a woman who is a philosophy teacher, she's brilliant, intelligent, standing above all criticism, and this woman, after having turned 50, realizes what a cold, lonely and worst of all, unfulfilled life she lived."Another Woman" uses a very clever plot device to subtly convey these feelings. Marion rents a little flat downtown to write her new book in a quiet environment, and gets distracted by the sessions of a woman at a therapist. Her first reaction is to cover the radiation system (from which the noises come) with pillows, but the temptation is too big. She ends up listening as the poor woman's plight hit some sensitive chords. Marian who never expressed any sign of weakness, who built her solid reputation on a pedestal of serenity that allowed her to spread judgments on her entourage, find the closest echoes to her hearts' most alarming torments. Then starts an unforgettable journey in Marion's life, where we discover the people of her life, and the way she affected them.Ian Holm is Ken, a snobby and stuffy doctor, whose teenage daughter, played by Martha Plimpton, developed a certain bond with Marion. Gene Hackman is Ken's friends and the only man who passionately loved Marion and felt that there was a fire burning behind that icy facade. Harris Yulin is the less-brilliant brother who had to live under her shadow, Sandy Dennis was her closest friend and still held some serious grudges against her, Sam (Philip Bosco) her true husband, after being her professor. Marion is such a secret and reserved woman, even her detailed narration are deprived from any emotionality, this is why these characters are vital to comprehend through the way they were affected by Marion, what kind of woman she was. Interestingly, Marian's empathy with the 'voice', which would reveal to be Mia Farrow, is a self-reflection on our own mental connection with Marion, it's a voyeuristic device tunneling us into the intimacy of a person, via her mind rather than any action. Ironically, it's the same effect that John Cassavetes' "A Woman Under the Influence" provided, but through the true- to-life improvisation and chaotic genius of Rowlands, sinking us into the darkest abysses of human soul. Rowlands strikes again but in a more restrained manner, we see the despair in her condition through her personal reactions to Mia Farrow's cries, to her friends and family's accusations. Rowlands proves again to be the greatest living actress for her ability to cut straight to your heart, no matter how explicit of implicit her torments must stay. "Another Woman" is made of tones of beige, and yellow, in harmony with the autumnal setting, as to convey the same melancholy than the woman who came to the last quarter of her life, and take some perspective on her accomplishments. The Bergmanian' feel is not accidental; the director of photography is Svent Nikvyst, Bergman's long-life partner. Allen has never hid his idolization of Ingmar Bergman but even if Marian's journey into her past, and the magnificent dreamy escape, are explicit homages to "The Wild Strawberries", "Another Woman" stands alone as a masterpiece of humanity, highlighting the conflicts between feelings, reason and instinct. Basically, Marian is a woman who thought so much, she mostly about how to feel, than feeling, using an intelligence like a social double-edged swords.Woody Allen is not just a talented but also an intelligent screenwriter, the only one I can think of to write intellectual's dialogs with such naturalism, there is Bergman again but this is more of Allen's trademark. Starting with "Annie Hall", "Manhattan", "Interiors", "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "September", the dichotomy between belonging to an upper class elite and being condemned to a world of boring social conventions, where intelligence and sophistication are the very barriers for living the exhilarating experiences they love to discover in books or movies. That is the paradox of Allen's characters. I mentioned at the end of my "September" review that the film coincided with Allen's 50's, a time he wondered where he was going, if he fulfilled his own dreams? Or was it even worth it? I guess as intelligent as Woody Allen is, he's not enough to be alienated by it, he's aware that without passion, without genuine affection, without the power not to take life seriously, life would be hell. Allen's dramatic vein has nothing to envy one of the best dramatic directors, but I admire his constant restriction as he never falls in the trap of over-dramatization, and even the darkest dramas carry some thin and fragile lights of hopes. The ending of "Another Woman" is satisfying because we know that Marion could make her own diagnostic, being aware of the problem can be half the solution. And in one expression of the eyes, we don't need anything other than putting our own pillows and let this woman try to reconquer the lost time.Finally, allow me to play the movie geek by insisting that "Another Woman" is the combination of tremendous talents in acting, directing, writing and cinematography. The film is a masterpiece, it's one of Allen's best and to use one Internet's favorite jargon, it's cruelly 'underrated'.