Being prolific film maker can be artistic virtue by itself, but often quantity comes at the expense of quality. For most of his career Woody Allen managed to avoid this curse and his films, despite tendency to resemble each other, provided satisfying levels of humour, wit and diversity and thus maintained Allen's reputation. However, as time went by, even some of critically acclaimed (and Oscar-awarded) Allen's films showed that relatively good average doesn't prevent his career from having a miss or two. This almost happened with Mighty Aphrodite, his 1995 comedy best known for the role that provided Mira Sorvino with Oscar for supporting role.
In this film Allen plays Lenny Weinrib, sports writer whose marriage to art dealer Amanda (played by Helena Bonham-Carter) is slowly melting down. In order to save marriage they decide to adopt young boy. The boy, named Max (played by Jimmy McQuaid), turns up to be incredibly bright. This doesn't seem to have desired effect on Lenny's marriage, but Lenny is nevertheless intrigued by boy's intelligence and begins quest for his real parents. Trail leads to Linda Ash (played by Mira Sorvino), call-girl and part-time porn actress whose impressive physique, foul language and complete lack of intelligence hide big heart. At least this is what Lenny wants to believe so, partly because he is attracted to her and partly out of pity, he tries to match her with Kevin (played by Michael Rappaport), kind-hearted but dim-witted boxer.
Mighty Aphrodite has an interesting plot, intriguing characters and plenty of opportunities for comedy. Woody Allen misses most of those opportunities; there are too many jokes that simply don't work. Even the main "gimmick" of this film - use of Greek chorus – is ruined by couple of questionable additions (chorus members breaking into Cole Porter's song). The casting - one of the strongest elements of Allen's films – is also lacking; Helena Bonham-Carter is not very convincing in the role of Lenny's wife. Thankfully, Mighty Aphrodite, just as the title suggests, rests on the shoulders of Mira Sorvino. Harvard-educated actress has shown incredible skill in displaying character which is funny and sexy in the same time. Her Oscar is well-deserved and it is real shame that her talent wasn't used with the same effect in her subsequent films. But in Mighty Aphrodite that talent is well-used and represents the reason enough to watch this film.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on September 26th 2003)
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