Although Allen had not been a major figure in terms of box office in America since the comparative success of Hannah And Her Sisters in 1986, his European market remained strong, and on home soil he was still viewed in a glowing manner by almost all the major film critics.
Sweet And Lowdown (1999) saw Sean Penn and Samantha Morton become the latest actors to benefit from Oscar nominations after appearing in a Woody Allen, and despite poor domestic box office, the film was received warmly by most film writers.
Small Time Crooks (2000) began a period of sustained negative opinion against Allen's films. Although not panned, the film - concerning an incompetent team of criminals trying to score a big job - was seen as far removed from the humorous, adult films Allen had built his reputation on since the end of the 1970s.
A knockabout farce, it still featured some of the witty one-liners which had been a part of the director's repertoire since his days as a stand-up comic in the 1960s. The film suffers from a lack of weight and any emotional substance, which was still evident in his other recent comedies, such as Bullets Over Broadway (1994).
The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion
Allen stayed within the crime genre with his next film, The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion (2001), a critical and commercial failure. Allen plays CW Briggs, the best insurance investigator in town, who falls under the spell of a hypnotist. A very stylized period caper, The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion aims for a screwball comedy-level of banter, but often the dialogue between Allen and Helen Hunt does not spark.
A great deal of film writers were now lamenting the fall of Allen's talent, and as many critics had yearned for his 'early, funny ones' during his move in to more mature filmmaking in the late 1970s, they were now fondly recalling the likes of Annie Hall and Manhattan.
Hollywood Ending (2002), the next film from the director, was never released theatrically in the United Kingdom, a first for a Woody Allen film, and a marker of the negative reaction the film garnered upon its release in other territories. Over the rest of the decade, Allen's films would sometimes find it difficult to secure a worldwide release.
Anything Else
Perhaps aware of the limited appeal of Hollywood Ending, Allen's follow-up, Anything Else, focused on the younger talent of Jason Biggs and Cristina Ricci in the lead roles, with Allen only taking up a minor, purely comical role. The poster for Anything Else makes no reference to Allen's involvement, despite his writing and directing roles, in addition to his performance.
Despite the emphasis on popular young actors, the film only limped past $3,000,000 at the US box office, and again did not fare well with critics. Jason Biggs, as Kenneth Branagh also did, struggles with the lead, neurotic role which Allen perfected in his earlier films. The relationship between Ricci and Biggs does not spark the same realism as the conflicted and realistic couplings performed by Allen and Diane Keaton, or Allen and Mia Farrow in the 1970s and 1980s.
Melinda And Melinda
More successful was Melinda And Melinda (2004), an interesting experiment, in which Melinda (Rhada Mitchell) sees her life move two different ways. In one strand, Melinda becomes the object of affection for Hobie (Will Ferrell), a clumsy neurotic, whilst in the second, more dramatic narrative, she embarks on a stormy relationship with Ellis Moonsong (Chiwetel Ejiofor).
As with Crimes And Misdemeanors (1989), Allen soundtracks the comedic and dramatic strands in different ways, the Ferrell-focused half containing upbeat jazz, Ejiofor's built upon emotion-laden classical music. Although not always successful in balancing the two elements, Melinda And Melinda showed enough sparks of Allen's wit and experimentation to win a small audience, and ended a run of increasingly negative critical opinion of his output.
Karl Keely - Karl has been writing for several years now despite his youth, and has produced material for a variety of sources. His largest recent ...
