Husbands and Wives

Starring:Lysette Anthony, Ilene Blackman, Cristi Conaway, Galaxy Craze, Blythe Danner, Judy Davis, John Doumanian, Mia Farrow, Bruce Jay Friedman, Rebecca Glenn, Timothy Jerome, Jeffrey Kurland, Juliette Lewis, Nick Metropolis, Liam Neeson, Sydney Pollack, Ron Rifkin, Gordon Rigsby, Benno Schmidt
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com essential video

In 1992, Woody Allen and Mia Farrow--heretofore the Lunt and Fontanne of Hollywood on the Hudson--went public with a media-saturated battle over Allen's affair with Farrow's adopted daughter. Only a few months later, Allen released this film, starring himself and Farrow acting out a virtually identical plot line: an unhappy marriage begins to crumble when the husband strays with a much younger woman (in this case, one of his students, played by Juliette Lewis). It turned out to be one of Allen's most lacerating comedies, a story about the fragility of relationships and the foolishness of older men seeking to recapture their youth with younger women. It features strong performances by Judy Davis, Liam Neeson, and director Sydney Pollack, as a friend of Allen's who chucks his longtime wife for an aerobics instructor, thus planting seeds of marital dissolution in all of his friends' heads. Husbands and Wives provided an uncanny peek into Allen's image of himself and his personal life, despite all of his protestations to the contrary. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews:

Is Such Thing as Perfect Relationship Possible? How to Find and to Keep It?.......2007-04-09

Woody Allen makes good, very good, and excellent films.

Husbands and Wives is a very good film with excellent performances. It is not a comedy but rather a dramedy that explores marriages and relationships of four main characters. It has several funny moments and dialogs (it is Allen after all) but it has disturbing and sad scenes, too.

When Jack and Sally (Sidney Pollack and Judy Davis) announce that they're separating, this comes as a shock to their best friends Gabe and Judy (Allen and Farrow). They start to reevaluate their own marriage only to find out that it is not as perfect as they thought. Very soon Jack and Sally, and then Gabe and Judy start to meet new people - young, bright, and attractive. They all hope that new is better, and for some of them it is true while the others come to understanding that true love involves loving another's imperfections even when very well aware of them.

This film is for all husbands and wives, lovers, and partners around the world. It is for couples who've been in a relationship for a month, a year, or decades. It is for singles who are ready or who think they want to enter a relationship. It is also for people who don't. All of us have been or may find ourselves in a situation or relationship or having a conversation like the ones in the Allen's film. All of us think and talk about love, trust, understanding, fidelity, sex, and yes - marriage.

The best scenes of the film belong to Allen and Farrow. Some of their conversations in the movie probably reflect the situation in their own relationship that ended soon after the film was made. It is the last film Allen made with Farrow.

Judy Davis played the role of her carrier practically stealing the film. I was shocked to find out that she received all possible Critics Awards that year and lost Best Supporting Oscar to Marisa Tomei. I love Tomei's performance in My Cousin Vinny (1992) but nomination itself would've been enough. Davis was the Best Supporting actress (I saw all films with nominated performances). Sidney Pollack (The Oscar winning director of Out of Africa and two times nominee for Tootsie and They Shoot Horses, Don't They?) and Liam Nisson were wonderful. I did not like Juliet Lewis at all. What she did adorably in Cape Fear with De Niro for ten minutes scene, she tried to stretch for over an hour here - did not work, IMO.

I like "Husbands and Wives" - it was interesting to watch, and it left me thinking if such thing as perfect relationship is ever possible, and what it would take to not only find it but to keep it.

4.5/5

Husbands & Wives.......2007-01-28

Woody Allen's 1992 film "Husbands and Wives" was released around the time we first heard the words Soon-Yi, which is ironic considering the subject matter of the film. "Husbands and Wives" is billed as a comedy, but is more of a drama. There are a few jokes, but there's nothing incredibly funny in the film. The movie is told like a documentary, featuring interviews with the characters and handheld cinematography. Allen and Mia Farrow play Gabe and Judy Roth, a couple who have been married for ten years and think everything is well. Then their two friends Jack and Sally (Sydney Pollack & Judy Davis) announce they are getting divorced, which causes Gabe and Judy to question the validity of their own marriage. As Jack and Sally move on (with Jack getting a much hotter younger woman and Sally lusting after Michael, played by Liam Neeson), Gabe and Judy begin to move farther apart. Gabe, a college professor, finds himself falling for a 20-year-old student named Rain (Juliette Lewis) and Judy finds herself, also, lusting after Michael. The movie is 106 minutes, but a lot of stuff happens in the film. This is not one of Woody Allen's best; it's not in the top 5 anyway. It's overwrought and is not his most entertaining. The performances are very good, especially Farrow, Pollack, and Davis. Juliette Lewis, meanwhile, has echoes of Mariel Hemingway in "Manhattan" in her performance. The cinematography and mock-documentary style of the film gets old after a while, with the former getting headache-inducing after a while. "Husbands and Wives" is a good study of marriage and infidelity. One critic (I don't recall which one it was) said that "Husbands and Wives" seemed like Allen trying to come to grips with the Soon-Yi debacle, but the ending here is quite different. "Husbands and Wives" has its merits, it's demerits...But it's a worthy Woody Allen film that's definitely worth watching.

GRADE: B-

One of Woody Allen's best.......2006-11-14

Husbands and Wives ranks up there in my mind with Broadway Danny Rose and Deconstructing Harry as one of Woody Allen's best movies. Put aside any concerns regarding the state of his personal life at the time this movie came out; the insights are intriguing and entertaining, and you'll find something new in it each time you watch it.

One of the Better Allen Films.......2006-10-26

When first watching this film, it was akin to a voyeur, a fly on the wall, a third party witnessing the painful yet swift destruction of a marriage.

The timing of this film was uncanny and seemed planned; Allen knew exactly what he was doing, the protagonist falling for a younger woman, something that middle-aged men do at times.

Allen casted his wife, Ms. Farrow, in all his important films to date, and with Husbands and Wives, her last really major film, thus she never starred or took part in another Allen film again.

The reason for this fall out, in "real life", Allen had fallen in love with his step daughter and began an affair. He eventually married her and to present time, they are still married, and appear to be doing well.

Ms. Farrow's career, however, simply disappeared and she has not made a film of worth since her divorce from Allen and the subsequent scandal.

This is an original film, a look into human nature, particularly man's nature, proving their rise in virility at a time of doubt and middle age, when the hair recedes, the belly grows and younger women appear attractive because they need to prove their worth as a "male". Similar to an old lion, the King of the Pride is exiled because he is too weak to run the show.

The cast is remarkable. Judy Davis as Sally as usual, portrayed a gritty, aggressive self absorbed woman, leaving her husband, Jack, Sidney Pollack, for a "new aged" man; Michael Gates, played with true honesty by Liam Neeson, does a wonderful job as the rebound. Pollack's performance is perfect, as the "mid-life-crises" male looking for love in all the wrong places. The "party scene" where he drags his young "girlfriend" out of his friend's party because of his embarrassment, her stupid, unrelated exposition on astrology, to his "intellectual" friends, brought him to the edge:(the scene outside the house was Oscar material) a truly wonderful performance by Pollack, a great director but also a damn good actor.

In the end, though truly original, Husbands and Wives is an honest look at modern relationships, our weaknesses, our desires, and the consequences of those desires.

Husbands and Wives is one of the better Allen films of his career.

Last Excellent Drama.......2006-07-08

After Husbands and Wives, Allen made 3 pretty good comedies then seemed to lose interest in his own work. His movies in the last ten years have ranged from pretty good but nothing special to downright painful. Husbands & Wives is the last and 13th Allen/Farrow movie. Unlucky number 13, it would seem. The public Woody/Mia/Soon-Yi firestorm was unprecedented at the time, even by Hollywood standards. The movie, itself, is great. Extremely dramatic as it examines the push/pull of various adults in various couplings as they break up, come together & mix and match between each other. Pollack and Judy Davis are great as a seemingly perfect couple who are, in fact, a dreadful couple behind closed doors. Allen and Farrow are equally superb as a fairly healthy couple whose marriage unravels little by little. Liam Neeson and Juliette Lewis are surprisingly effective and interesting in the usually thankless "lover" roles. The filming is unique in it is one of the few times Allen has embraced fancy film-schoolish camera techniques like handheld cams and deliberately obstructed shots.

Average customer rating:

Marriage God's Way

Manufacturer: No Greater Joy Ministries
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Product Features:

2 DVDs
Husbands, love your wives and Wives, honor your husbands

ASIN: 1892112248

Product Description

Michael and Debi Pearl, married for 34 years, readily confess that they are not perfect people, but they do profess to have a perfect marriage. Michael tells how they started out with conflicts, but soon grew to be much more as a couple than they are as individuals. Michael takes the viewer through the Word of God to uncover the Divine plan for husbands and wives. The Pearls have five grown children, all happily married, and many grandchildren. These two messages have been used by God to restore many failing marriages.