User Reviews

Made by Woody Allen in his serious mode, the drama "September" is not as impressive and fine as "Another Woman" but it is still an interesting movie. Chekhov said once about the characters in his plays, "People sit at the table, drink tea, talk politics, and at the same time their hearts get broken". In this regard, Allen's "September' is a very Chekhovian movie ("Uncle Vanya" comes to mind first). The film takes place inside a country house in Vermont where several characters, friends and relatives of Lane (Mia Farrow), a fragile and troubled young woman recovering from a nervous breakdown, get together for a rainy weekend in the end of the Summer. The weekend will be filled with the drinks, conversations, tender and delicate music. Six characters will fell in and out of love; the friendships will be betrayed, the hearts will be broken, a hidden family secret will come out. Along with the characters, we will reflect on love, mother-daughter complicated relationship, family secrets, aging, loneliness, longing, emotional crises, and self doubt as six cultured and intelligent individuals will try to find the meaning and the purpose in their lives. The film brings to mind John Cheever's observation: "The main emotion of the adult American who has had all the advantages of wealth, education, and culture is disappointment." There are a lot of disappointments, regrets and unhappiness in the characters of "September" but the weekend will be over, the rain will stop. There will be the possibility of hope in the future. The sun always comes after the rain.

First i must say that i'm an inconditional Woody Allen fan so i can take a lot from him without judgement. I watch September for the first time yesterday and i must say that it was good. I've read many bad comments on that one throughout the years so i was ready for the end of the world! Having read Woody's comment on the film in the DVD booklet i was surprised to find out that Woody had intended September to be a filmed play. So with this in mind i was more opened to the "extremely hermetic" ambiance of the film. Ok,it is emotionly heavy at times in this who-love-who plot but it is rewarded with great performance from Diane Wiest and Mia Farrow. I would recommend this to anyone who want to see another side of Woody with an opened mind. I really enjoyed that one...

Let's face it: It's hard to be entertained by a story where everybody's in love with someone who's in love with someone else. Chekhov can make it compelling (watch "Vanya on 42nd Street" for recent proof of this), but Allen obviously had other things in mind with this film. I guess it was his antidote to "Hannah and Her Sisters," where similar love triangles (and other polygons) played out, but the end result was much happier. Allen usually doesn't like to give us such neat endings, so a year later we get "September," in which little is resolved and most of the characters end up back where they started. It's a fascinating film in its own way, but it doesn't bear repeated viewings.

Wasn't in the mood to watch a film last night, but couldnt remember seeing Denholm Elliot in a Woody Allen movie before, so realised this was one I hadnt seen before.

Can't say as I was 'entertained' - but I was gripped and rooted to the sofa for the duration, which could say something about my sofa of course, but was really down to this film. The dialogue and acting were both utterly convincing - and there were many moments of intense honesty. Just for once, relationships don't resolve, nor are we rescued from darkness by gratuitous humour. It's a stark, depressing beautifully acted piece of claustrophobic drama. More your Webern 'five pieces', rather than your Strauss, 'Der RosenKavalier'.

If nothing else - it's nice to be reminded that not all scripts are written by a gang of 12 year olds....

Basically, if you liked "Interiors" you will probably also enjoy this moody piece which features some fine performances and a lot of angst-filled speeches. On the other hand, if you didn't like "Interiors" you probably won't like this film either. Although it isn't as good as Allen's more famous melodrama, it comes close to being of equal quality, in terms of the acting; the script, however, leaves something to be desired. I'd recommend it if someone asked me, but I wouldn't go out of my way to try to get people to see it.

Mia Farrow plays suicidal Lane, a child-like woman hoping to sell off the family cottage in Vermont so she can start life anew in New York City; she's surrounded for the weekend by her married friend (Dianne Wiest), a charming, struggling writer (Sam Waterston), an elderly neighbor who harbors a crush on Lane (Denholm Elliott), and Lane's demonstrative mama (Elaine Stritch) and her latest husband (Jack Warden). Seems mother and daughter were once the subjects of a scandalous murder-trial from years ago (shades of Lana Turner and daughter Cheryl), and Lane's emotional showdown with her mother provides an intense acting moment between Farrow and Stritch. Claustrophobic Woody Allen drama was one of the writer-director's biggest commercial and critical failures (he filmed it twice with two separate casts--this is the second version, the original remains unseen). It's a nearly-humorless study of the dangers of repression, yet the picture doesn't learn from itself--the handling is repressed as well--and few of these characters seem improved by the finale. Allen's languid pacing nearly comes to a halt during an electrical storm (at just 85 minutes, "September" doesn't exactly utilize its time wisely); however, this group of privately-tortured souls is as fascinating as the family in Allen's "Interiors." In fact, of the two films, this may be the better effort. *** from ****

Out of all Woody's film's I still find this the most difficult to watch,and after seeing Bergmans's 'Autumn sonata' I noticed some striking similarities.For example,this may only be coincidence but the way that Mia Farrow's character looks (Her glasses,her hair) bears a striking resemblence to the daughter in 'Autumn sonata' played by Liv ullmann.In both films we have a dominant mother who the daughter hates for something that she had done in the past.

I think when you know that Woody took two attempts to film this there was definitely something wrong somewhere.

Judging from not liking it very much on first viewing(not been used to how the characters were written and being exhausted after a hard week being the biggest reasons) and that there are people who judge it as one of Woody Allen's worst, re-watching it could have gone either way. In debating if September is one of Allen's worst or his worst, on first viewing I would have said yes but re-watching it while nowhere near one of his best it is not that bad. It's not perfect, it does drag a bit with some dialogue that rambles and the ending is very abrupt. And two performances personally didn't quite come off well, Mia Farrow is very shrill here(even for a character as tormented as she was) and it did grate and Sam Waterson is unusually wooden. However, the rest of the acting is great, especially from Elaine Stritch who gives a poignant performance that did have me weeping. Jack Warden has one of the more interesting subsidiary characters and has fun with it, Denholm Elliot is at his most subtle and sympathetic and Dianne Wiest while not as good as she was in Hannah and Her Sisters(which is one of the greatest performances in a Woody Allen film) is fine as well. Allen directs as adroitly as ever, despite being relatively different thematically dialogue, characters and influences wise Allen's style is still unmistakable. The dialogue has some rambling moments but much of it is incredibly intelligent and thought-provoking as well as truthful in a way that is painful as it is heart-breaking. The characters are not easy to like and are purposefully neurotic but the compellingly realistic way they're written and the situations they go through makes you identify with them too and you feel as if you're there and part of the drama. You will be emotionally exhausted by the story afterwards too, and the story itself draws you in with its themes and its characters and rarely lets go. The Bergman and Chekhov influences are very clear but not blatant. September benefits also from being wonderfully shot, it looks beautiful and stylish and reflects Autumn very well, and from having an evocatively orchestrated and beautifully written music score(one of my personal favourites from a Woody Allen film actually). To conclude, imperfect but a pretty good film, and I take back what I said about it at the end of my The Curse of the Jade Scorpion review, in all fairness it was acknowledged that things could change on re-watch. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I'm probably in the minority here but i find this to be one of Allen's top ten masterpieces. Every scene works and the more you watch it, the more searing it becomes. No doubt you need to be in the right frame of mind to see it, but it's like a great night watching a play unfold. So many deep secrets, betrayals and unspoken feelings, finally, all coming to a head by the time the power comes back on after that thunderstorm. It feels way too real and may be why it makes most audience members uncomfortable. I liked this the first time I saw it and continue to hold it in high esteem years and almost 2 decades later. To preserve the great Elaine Stritch on film forever is enough to recommend it but the acting is painfully truthful to the point of awe. Woody's 3 dramas: this and Interiors and Another Woman form a great triangle. They should be looked at and admired now for the fine ensemble casting and the pinpoint writing. Whether they rip off Bergman or not, is rather pointless to argue. Each of them stand up as potent films on their own. Waterston and Wiest re-united on TV's Law And Order, and Stritch as well went on to win an Emmy on Law, so it shows how intuitive Allen was when it came to choosing great actors for his scripts. I found Farrow's character to be highly moving. Then again, I liked everything she and Allen did together. You became almost spoiled by the high quality. As a lifelong Allen viewer, I still think this is fine stuff and will stick by my high opinion every time I re-see it.

Denholm Elliott has the hots for Mia Farrow, who has the hots for Sam Waterston, who has the hots for Dianne Wiest. Mia's ex-film-star mother and her physicist husband descend on them, insult everyone and then go away again. All this is set in a house in New England during a storm and power-cut.

Some critics see this as Allen in Bergman mode again but to me its claustrophobic country-house atmosphere is more reminiscent of Chekhov – with one important exception: Chekhov has jokes. This is tedious stuff. No wonder Soon-Yi (in Wild Man Blues) says that she walked out of it.

Fact and fiction got confused in my mind when Mia Farrow's character started talking about shooting her mother's gangster lover when she was a teenager. This may be an allusion to the real-life shooting of Johnny Stompanato by Lana Turner's daughter. Elaine Strich, playing the mother, is reminiscent of Farrow's real mother Maureen O'Sullivan in Hannah And Her Sisters.

I enjoyed the film. As one previous comment mentions, it is reminiscent of Bergman's Autumn Sonata. Probably intentional on Allen's part, and his homage to Bergman. The characters are played over the top, as in any good melodrama, and like most Allen characters in all his films. The film is presented as a stage play being filmed.

I am surprised that none of the previous comments mention the wonderful music of Art Tatum, Ben Webster et al. For Allen I suspect that the music is a central character of the film, and the film is an opportunity for Allen to present this music to his filmgoing audience.

I really like Woody Allen (and not just his comedies). I found the weak and sombre characters paraded here to be so tiresome and narcissistic. How did they all end up in such close proximity? Mia Farrow is a tear gusher. She has nothing to offer the world and when it slaps back she hides. The Sam Waterston character is a writer of nothing who goes after Diane Wiest after stringing Farrow along. There is a deep dark secret here which I won't ruin. Elaine Stritch is her caustic self, bullying everyone and taking no responsibility for her life of excess and her affect on her daughter. lI felt as though I had been locked in a dark room. There is no light in this film. The acting is excellent, but if I never met any of these characters again it would be too soon.

SEPTEMBER is living proof that even a genius can screw up. I'm a real fan of Woody Allen's, and I even thought that "Interiors", which the critics carved up, wasn't so bad. But 'September' is a real dog, a genuine bow-wow. I came across it in the video store (I forget which category I found it under, but it should have been 'Horror'); I hadn't heard of it but was attracted by the cast - Mia Farrow, Sam Waterston, Denholm Elliot and Jack Warden among others.

We are dumped abruptly into a summer house in Vermont where four neurotic, repressed, and emotionally constipated people are discussing with each other how miserable they are. This interminable whining is interrupted by the arrival of the parents of Lane (Mia Farrow). This provides a change of character - instead of neurotic we get wimpy (the father) and obnoxiously self-centered (the mother). The rest of the movie deals with the emotional entanglements of these six boring folks, with more whining and some inane philosophizing thrown in. The dialogue is leaden enough to sink the Lusitania, the pacing is slower than grain delivery in the former USSR, and action is non-existent (nothing HAPPENS). The movie ends as abruptly as it began, leaving the viewer (assuming he got that far), with two thoughts - 1) thank God, and, 2) what the Hell was the point?

Forget it. See "Love and Death" or "Sleeper" again.

Sombre story from Woody Allen details (with much angst) a disastrous weekend in Vermont with 6 people seemingly all at loose ends. Mia Farrow "lost" her husband and has fallen for lugubrious writer Sam Waterston, but he's fallen for Dianne Wiest. A neighbor, Denholm Elliott, secretly loves Mia. Mia's mother and husband have also arrived (Elaine Stritch and Jack Warden). Story has echoes of Ibsen and Bergman. Waterson and Farrow are a bit hard to take, but the acting is solid all round. The Vermont house is a set on a sound stage but looks great. Wiest is always good, and Warden is good but has little to do. The intruders--a realtor and two clients--are annoying boors (played by Rosemary Murphy, Ira Wheeler, and Jane Cecil). Stritch steals the show as the one-time playgirl/actress with a Lana Turner past. Had this film been a hit, Stritch would have garnered an Oscar nomination. She's a total dynamo even if her character is unsympathetic. Maureen O'Sullivan began shooting as the mother but was replaced by Stritch. Not for all tastes, not as good as "Interiors," but even mediocre Woody Allen is better than most.

September is about six boring characters that nobody cares about. This slow paced movie bores its audience to death that by the 3rd Act nobody is awake to notice any of the great performances let alone anything climatic. While other slow paced films like Another Woman have an equal plot and style, September has the burden of having very unlikeable and non-interesting characters. Another Woman is slow but it is interesting with some great performances. September is dead on arrival with not a single appealing story. Far from a comedy September is also not much of a drama since the conflict between characters are so simple, its far from anything dramatic. I won't say this is Woody's Worst, but I will say it is far from anything serious like Interiors or Match Point. September requires an acquired taste in order to enjoy.

It was a december night when I watched this movie, around five years back. Wasn't in the mood to watch this film as this was not in the top of my watchlist. But I am glad I watched it. The movie is all about complex human emotions and relationships and Woody Allen was pretty convincing for most of the movie.

'September' is a well made movie. Beautifully written and a well acted movie. The six characters that are spending the time together and dealing with their feelings, emotions depressions and broken heart, the director conveys a message that we should not be so attached to people or things.

"September" is a 1987 film from Woody Allen, which he intended as a "filmed play." In that, it succeeds; in fact, one might assume that it was a play. It certainly could be performed on stage.

The story concerns an unsuccessful photographer from New York, Lane (Mia Farrow) who is spending the summer in the family summer home trying to heal from a breakdown. There, visiting for the weekend at the summer's end are Lane's mother Diane (Elaine Strich), her husband Lloyd (Jack Warden), Lane's best friend Stephanie (Dianne Wiest), a man who lives in the guest cottage, Peter (Sam Waterston), who has spent the summer trying to write a book; and a friend of Lane's, Howard (Denholm Elliot). During the weekend, feelings come to the surface and secrets are revealed. Peter is in love with Stephanie, who is married; Lane is in love with Peter; Howard is in Love with Lane; and Lane and Diane have unresolved issues, which have caused Lane a great deal of anger and pain.

This is a derivative story that draws on elements of "Autumn Sonata," though it is nowhere near as searing, and any number of ensemble pieces. The story of Lane and her mother is based on the Lana Turner-Johnny Stompanato scandal.

The acting is terrific. Elaine Stritch is magnificent as a self-centered former (probably society) beauty whose selfishness has hurt her daughter; Sam Waterson's Peter exhibits a quiet disappointment in himself, and his desperate love for Stephanie is palpable; Dianne Wiest is brilliant as Stephanie, who is unhappily married, and her reluctance to betray Lane and move forward with her life is very poignant. Farrow is childlike and fragile with underlying rage erupting in small ways, and then finally exploding. Under Allen's direction, Farrow proved to be a wonderful actress. Elliot as the devastated Howard and Warden as Lane's stepfather, who adores his wife and stays in the background, give solid performances in smaller roles.

This is a short film, something like an hour and 22 minutes, yet there are some repetitive scenes and dialogue. Nevertheless, it's all worth it not only for the acting but the confrontation toward the end between Farrow and Stritch. It's not Bergman and Ullman, but it's still powerful.

Recommended.

September is OK if you're in the right mood for watching several characters walking around a house, doing lots of earnest talking, generally feeling sorry for themselves. I guess such moods don't come too often, but I just watched it to its very end and I didn't feel disappointed. The only disappointment comes with reading the booklet (for the German edition of the DVD) which obviously has been written by someone who did not even bother to watch the movie. According to this bizarre piece of writing, the fragile Lane (Mia Farrow) recovers from a nervous breakdown in Vermont, where she gets to know and love her neighbour Sam (!) (Sam Waterston). Their understanding relationship finally gives her the strength for a new beginning. But her high spirits do not last for long because Sam's feelings, err actually Peter's, inexplicably cool down and her mother has shocking news for her. Lane suddenly finds herself entangled in a web of passion, betrayal and manipulation, which is threatening to destroy her emotionally ... well, simply put and if one gets the names right, the film is about Howard who loves Lane, who loves Peter, who loves Stephanie. Their misplaced feelings are accompanied by Lane's mother who loves herself.

A ponderous sonnet about those limbering between genius and stagnation.

This is the film that Woody Allen notoriously shot and then scrapped, re-wrote, re-cast and re-shot, and was reportedly keen to do it a third time. But to be honest, I really wish he'd just left it scrapped. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Allen fan, and would sit down to watch anything by him, comedy or drama, and on top of that, I'm also a fan of Ingmar Bergman, whom Allen admires greatly and has obviously taken huge inspiration from for September, most notably his film Autumn Sonata. I also have great respect for Woody's constant desire to do his own thing, his desire to never get caught up in the demands of mainstream, money-making Hollywood, and his determination to always be different. But in this case, his desire to be different hinders September totally, and what could have been a thoughtful and original psychological drama ends up being a desperate attempt by Allen to be as bleak and "different" as possible, and is unnecessarily tedious and condescending.

The story is simple. A group of six people, (in my opinion some of the most boring characters ever assembled), gather together one summer at a country house. From there on in, there is lifeless and at times pointless drama between the characters as they all deal with love and evaluating their lives, each one more annoying than the last, completely lacking any power or conviction.

The concept of the film is fascinating, and suits a filmmaker like Allen, who focuses primarily on characters and their thoughts and feelings above all else, particularly in his dramas, down to the ground. The film is a chamber piece, that is, it focuses on a very small number of characters in the one setting from start to finish. Also, Allen's main idea is to film in the style of a play as much as possible, using long, un-broken shots and keeping any unnecessary camera movements like close-ups to a minimum. The fusion of these two mediums is an extremely interesting idea, and is appropriate for the material. So far, so interesting. But unfortunately, that still leaves the rest of the film to look at.

Pretension is the word of the day in September, and as interesting as its premise is, everything else about it feels forcedly unglamorous and so unnecessarily bland, almost as if Allen was curious as to just how independent and how anti-Hollywood he could make a film. But as great an idea as that sounds, there's a huge difference between making a film that's genuinely different and non-mainstream, and making a film that's just trying to be different for the sake of being different and rubbing it in the faces of mainstream films and film-watchers everywhere, and to me that's all September is. Nothing feels natural about this film, and it doesn't feel like it was made to be good, it just seems like Allen's attempt to be as different and as "indie" as possible, with no effort at actually making it good.

What doesn't help is that an experienced and talented cast turn in drab and lifeless performances, though one of the main reasons for this is that they all find themselves stuck with boring, one-dimensional and frankly whiny characters that spend the entire film upset or sad about their lives, but lacking any real emotional depth or personality, instead just doing it because Allen wants the film to be as bleak and dramatic as possible. Taking the lead role, Mia Farrow as Lane begins as probably the most human of all the characters, and the one that seems most real, but by the end has become the most boring and whiny of them all, with a pretty lacklustre performance. Sam Waterston as Peter is diabolical, delivering a totally flat and ridiculously wooden performance, almost like an acting student performing in front of his peers for the first time. On a par with Waterston's awful performance is that of Dianne Wiest as Stephanie who is about as interesting and emotionally engaging as a doorknob, and whose story of her failing marriage is as short on depth and insightfulness as her head is of hair.

Luckily there are a few worthwhile performances, notably Denholm Elliott who gives a very interesting and subtle performance as Howard, the man in love with Lane, who is one of the only characters with any real appeal or feeling in the whole film, but who unfortunately is barely used. Another god performance comes from Elaine Stritch as Lane's mother Diane, who although gives a convincing and at times genuinely emotionally engrossing performance, is also saddled with an uninteresting and unengaging character. Strong support comes also from Jack Warner as Lane's stepfather Lloyd, an enjoyable and interesting character with intelligent and intriguing insights into life.

As regards the poor performances, it would be unfair to say that it's totally the actors' fault, as they were dealing with a director who was after nothing more than ponderous melodrama and banal story-telling, and although conceived an unusual and interesting idea, was incapable of avoiding pretentiousness and one-dimension. Woody Allen has been responsible for many intelligent, engaging and extremely moving films. Go and watch those instead, as this is not one of them.

Woody Allen directed this film which is more character driven with six leading roles starring his then-partner in life, Mia Farrow, Oscar winner Dianne Wiest, Jack Warden, Emmy Winner Elaine Stritch, before Law & Order Sam Waterson and the late Denholm Elliott CBE. Amazingly, Allen doesn't have to go far to film this movie about a summer home in Vermont. It was all filmed at the Kaufman-Astoria Studios in Queens, New York. Regardless, the film is entirely believable and the setting is quite quaint in nature. It really looks like an authentic country home. It begins with Weist and Elliott conversing in French in Lane's living room played by Farrow. Weist's character is a married mother and an unhappy housewife from Philadelphia but Lane's best friend. Lane falls in love with Peter (Waterson) but he's in love with Weist's character, Stephanie. Lane is also upset by her mother, Diane Frazer's visit with her current husband played by Warden. Stritch is dynamic as Lane's mom in an unforgettable role. Elliott's character, a friend and neighbor of Lane, is in love with her but she is not in love with him. Except for the real estate agent played by Rosemary Murphy and a city couple who want to purchase the home, the cast is relatively balanced like that in a good theatrical production. There are some surprises but we always knew that Stritch is brilliant in anything that she does.

At a summer house in Vermont, neighbor Howard (Denholm Elliott) falls in love with Lane (Mia Farrow), who is in a relationship with Peter (Sam Waterston), who is falling for Stephanie (Dianne Wiest), who is married with children.

This film was Woody Allen's biggest financial failure, bringing in less than $500,000. It is also often compared with his earlier film, "Interiors". These two things, while seemingly unrelated, are probably very closely related.

As the plot above suggests, this is material just ready for a good comedy featuring a love triangle (or whatever shape this is). Instead, Allen made it completely serious and rather depressing, and it makes even his intellectual references (e.g. Kurasawa) fall rather flat, because these are not characters we are ready to open our hearts to.

September is what I call a real estate movie, because what happens isn't nearly as interesting as where it all happens. In this case, the real estate is a cozy country cottage in Vermont, a warm and cheerfully decorated little place far from the city. The shades are always closed, but warm, golden, late summer sunlight filters through, suggesting that it would be a wonderful place to either visit or, better still, to grow old in. It looks so real and richly detailed that it is hard to believe that it is a set, built for the movie in some New York film studio. The creepy thing about Woody Allen's September is that this totally make-believe house is more realistic than the characters who gather inside.

September is another of Woody's beautifully detailed, sensitively written, lovingly acted and utterly annoying "serious" films. There is a smattering of not-particularly-funny bits of humor, designed to suggest that the characters are clever people, but once again the main traits shared by all are indecisiveness, depression and a gift for long-winded bouts of self pity. The six main characters who spend the weekend in this country home spend a lot of time talking about their feelings, though one has a hard time believing that any of them actually have real feelings. Instead everyone seems to be doing psychotherapy exercises designed to help them self-consciously get in touch with themselves. The end result of this achingly insincere sincerity is an intense desire by the viewer to want to give each and every cast member a sincere slap across the face.

During their years together, Allen gave to his partner Mia Farrow some of the best roles of her career -- as well as some of her worst. This may be the worst; certainly it allows her to indulge in her unfortunate tendency to whine and blubber in despair. The most intriguing aspect of September is that it is inspired by a bit of Hollywood legend, the death of Lana Turner's gangster boyfriend at the hands of her teenage daughter. Allen takes that infamous scandal and uses it as the seed for this film's drama. Farrow plays Lane, who is still living down the notoriety of having killed her celebrity mother's abusive boyfriend and who is now recuperating from her most recent suicide attempt. The feelings of guilt, shame, animosity, bitterness and envy shared between Lane and her mother, Diane (played by Elaine Stritch), would seem to be sufficient to sustain an interesting drama. But Allen uses the dirty little secret behind the old scandal as a minor plot twist, and instead focuses most of the film on a trite four-sided love triangle, in which passion is secondary to unrelenting discussions about each characters' unrequited passions.

Howard (Denholm Elliott) loves Lane, who loves Peter (Sam Waterston), who has a thing for Stephanie (Diane Wiest), who is married but returns Peter's feelings even though she knows that she is betraying Lane, blah, blah, blah. It all seems so high school, especially since they all talk about this, but are paralyzed to act on those feelings. Meanwhile Diane loves only Diane, even though she is partnered with Lloyd (Jack Warden), a melancholy physicist who is depressed over how utterly meaningless existence is.

The problem isn't so much the trite plotting as it is the overall and overwhelming tone of the drama. Woody walked this path before (six characters in a country house) in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S SEX COMEDY, but did so with a sense of whimsy and an unexpected show of hopeful romance. In September, the characters all talk with that hushed, sterile, halting formality that Allen apes from pretentious European art films. Everyone seems dubbed, disconnected from both their feelings and their dialogue. They might as well be discussing their income tax returns, though that would probably inspire much more enthusiasm. Such pregnant disconnection from emotion all but guarantees audience indifference and certainly is wrong for a story delving into the life of an emotionally disturbed woman.

As for the house itself, the set design, the lighting and the cinematography conspire to make this make-believe slice of rural eden so invitingly charming that it all but betrays the notion that the little house is meant to represent a prison -- or an asylum, if you prefer. It comes to represent the past Lane wants to shed and the past Diane wants to recapture. It is a battlefield to reclaim the honesty of their shared past. To the audience, no matter how flimsy the walls, it is the single thing in the entire film that offers warmth, comfort and promise. And it is an illusion. Which may have been Allen's point from the start.