With a workaholic production schedule cranking out a new film every year, the likelihood of Woody Allen ever matching his best work (Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters) is remote. Recently it seems that the Woodman has using a single script concept to film multiple variations, so it was time for him to rely on another old standby to fashion a workable project—the gimmick. He used this concept quite creatively on occasion—chameleon Zelig shape-shifting through historically significant scenes, Jeff Daniels walking off the screen into Mia Farrow's real world in The Purple Rose of Cairo, and Deconstructing Harry's visit to Hell (where you meet the inventor of aluminum siding and other residents).

Thus, Woody Allen's latest opus, Melinda and Melinda, allows the viewer to examine the ongoing question of whether he is more aligned with Ingmar Bergman or Federico Fellini. Beginning with dinner in a Chinese restaurant, two playwrights debate whether the world is essentially a tragedy or a comedy. Taking a basic scenario where a character disrupts a dinner party, the two playwrights devise two diametrically opposite theatrical versions that depend entirely on the writer's outlook on life. A comedy or tragedy? It's both—a two for one exercise lasting 99 minutes.

Not that Allen hasn't combined these elements previously. Annie Hall is essentially is a comedy about busted relationships, Manhattan is a more serious comedy about busted relationships, Hannah and Her Sisters is a comic-drama about tenuous relationships . . . you get the idea. This time Allen structures film distinctly around the pillars of comedy and tragedy with two separate plot lines and two ensemble casts with only Radha Mitchell (as Melinda) acting as the focal point of the two continually switching stories.

On the tragic side Laurel (Chloë Sevigny) is married to alcoholic actor Lee (Jonny Lee Miller) and knows Melinda as a close friend from her college days. On the comic side independent filmmaker Susan (Amanda Peet) and husband Hobie (Will Farrell as a nebbish struggling actor) know Melinda as the downstairs neighbor. Melinda leads to infidelities in both stories—love triangles that can be viewed as tragic or comic, depending on the human natures of the characters. The tragic Melinda is despondent and suicidal while the comic Melinda remains bright and perky

The fact that both plots come across as theatrical pieces works quite well here since they represent characters that are actually being sketched by the dinner party playwrights. They aren't even complete dramas in themselves with beginnings, character development, and resolutions—it's like we're watching the creative process in action. The dramas are exercises that can be changed at a moment's notice. Lest we forget, Allen occasionally switches back to the restaurant to remind us of his device.

The casting itself reminds us whether we're watching the comic or tragic story since the mere appearance of Farrell is enough to send audiences into titters and Sevigny's melancholy demeanor immediately signals the seriousness of the situation. Audiences invariably expect to see Woody appearing in his own movies, yet he resists for the second consecutive film. But we can still recognize the Allen persona in Farrell, as the failed actor/cuckold clumsily falls in love with Melinda and delivers the self-deprecating, angst driven Allen shtick.

It's all light hearted and entertaining. Inevitably it will play primarily arthouses to fans of Woody Allen work, who inevitably will compare Melinda and Melinda to Allen's large body of work. Most will find themselves unsatisfied since neither the "comedy" nor the "tragedy" is fully developed into a satisfying entity, but that is exactly the point that Allen is making. Sometimes movies are just movies, subject to the whims of the filmmakers who can carry the story in any direction that he wants. But so can the audience if the film is suitably nuanced to reflect Life since each of us continually colors every situation in comic or tragic tones.

After a number of recent movies that often have felt like re-treads of earlier scripts, Melinda and Melinda provides a refreshing new framework for Allen's premise. Although it doesn't reach the brilliance of his best work, it's interesting enough to keep me in line for his next project.