September Review

September
Everyone is gathering at Lane's place for the weekend, and everyone's in love. Unfortunately, each beloved loves somebody else and no one seems to realize it.

by William Thomas |
Published on
Release Date:

01 Jan 1987

Running Time:

82 minutes

Original Title:

September

Not a Lot of People Know That Department : Woody Allen originally filmed this one-set gloomarama with a cast including Christopher Walken, Charles Durning and Maureen O’Sullivan, but wasn’t happy with the results so he shot the whole thing again hauling in Sam Waterston, Denholm Elliott and Elaine Stritch to take over and play opposite seasoned Allenites like Mia Farrow and Dianne Wiest.

Stritch is miserable because she’s old, Farrow is miserable because none of her relationships work, Waterston is miserable because he can’t write a novel, Wiest is miserable because she’s fed up in her marriage, Elliott is miserable because he’s in love with Farrow, and Jack Warden is miserable because “the universe is haphazard, morally neutral and unimaginably violent”.

Not very funny, except when Allen tries seriously to get away with lines like “Peter, what happened to us?” or “My husband is a wonderful man”.

It’s highly artificial and wonderfully acted, but you come out wanting to shout “cheer up” at the screen.

A let down from a master of awkward interaction
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