Another Woman (1988)

Directed by Woody Allen
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM)

Woody Allen attempts to imitate his hero Ingmar Bergman, but instead makes an unintentionally funny satire. Gena Rowlands rents an apartment in which to write a book. She can hear everything said in the psychiatrist office next door. Woody can not resist this set up, and we hear a man talking about masturbation then a woman about suicide. Gena is a philosophy professor, my eyes roll and again I think this must be a comedy. In one scene her husband's ex shows up at a party, and he ushers her out the door saying "I accept your condemnation"...again funny, I thought. When she meets her childhood best friend by coincidence they have drinks together at a nearby bar. The friend thinks she is flirting with her husband and begins to chastise her about some other long forgotten boyfriend. The outburst is so absurd Woody must be going for laughs again, surely? Oh, and what about David Ogden Stiers playing the younger John Houseman, complete with a great Houseman impersonation? Hilarious! And then there is the ever present narration, so dry, so removed that it would have made Ed Wood proud.