Film of the week: Inspired by Chekhov, Woody Allen is back in New York and back on fine film-making form

"If it bends it's funny," explains Alan Alda's insufferable producer in Crimes and Misdemeanours. "If it breaks it isn't." But for his latest film, Woody Allen tries to have it both ways. Melinda and Melinda takes a dinner table anecdote about a neurotic femme-fatale and spins it off in two directions. One story "bends" to become a comedy; the other "breaks" into tragedy. Except that it's not quite as clear-cut as that.