ANOTHER WOMAN
A film review by Andrew Hicks
Copyright 1997 Andrew Hicks
(1988) *** (out of four)
In the Woody Allen canon, there's a trilogy of straight drama films Woody doesn't appear in -- INTERIORS, SEPTEMBER and ANOTHER WOMAN. This is the only success of the three, an unpleasant, uncompromising movie that exposes a seemingly successful woman's life as a complete sham. It was during the '80s that Woody appeared to be questioning the value of life and the nature of happiness, and ANOTHER WOMAN is the culmination of those explorations of angst in rich white folks.
The female Woody doppelganger this time is played by Gena Rowlands, a no-nonsense woman who just turned 50 and seems to have everything in life. She's the head of a university philosophy department, is married to a successful man (Ian Holm), has a friendly relationship with her teenage step-daughter (ex-GOONIE Martha Plimpton) and has a collection of well-to-do friends. Everything is nice and stable until she moves into a cross-town apartment to write her new book in complete isolation.
There's a vent in the wall that allows her to hear every word that's said in the next apartment, which turns out to be the office of a psychiatrist. Rowlands covers the vent up at first but can't resist the beautiful opportunity for aural voyeurism, and listens in on Mia Farrow's session everyday. Mia is neurotic and suicidal and opens up new thoughts in Rowlands' mind. Over a progression of contemporary scenes and flashbacks, we find out Rowlands has been deceiving herself about all the relationships in her life.
We see how Rowlands has imposed her own immense standards on her brother, Plimpton and her old best friend. We see her father (John Houseman), who's had a full life but now has nothing but regret. We see the relationship she passed up with the one man (Gene Hackman, in a smaller role than you'd expect with his star power) who really did passionately love her. We see that she and Holm don't have a close relationship and that she regards all of her supposed friends with contempt. She's a bitter, bitter woman.
As you can tell, ANOTHER WOMAN isn't the feel-good movie of the summer. It's the kind of intense drama that sometimes turns even the staunchest Woody Allen fans against him. Here, though, it's also filled with the kind of believability and emotion that makes it more relevant than INTERIORS and SEPTEMBER, which mostly seemed like a bunch of people whining about nothing. You won't laugh during ANOTHER WOMAN, but you will think, you will feel and, at least once, you will probably identify.
But will you be able to get your hands on a copy of this movie? It took me more than a year of casual searching in video stores to track down a copy of ANOTHER WOMAN. It is the most obscure Woody movie out there right now, more so than even WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY? Now that I've finally rented one of the few copies, I can honestly say this movie is worth searching for, especially for anyone who's seen the "funny" Woody Allen movies and wonders what he's capable of in the way of drama.
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