Melinda and Melinda opens with four people sitting in a restaurant talking about plays, and the essence of comedies and tragedies…and which one is better.

Then, the people tell a tale of the same incident, from different perspectives, to prove their point.

As with many of Woody’s movies from the 1990s through the mid 2000s, this one isn’t really firing on all cylinders. Its cast was not stellar. And the story was not crisply told.

This is the 35th movie Woody wrote and directed. It was released when he was 69.