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Actors: Woody Allen, Mira Sorvino, Helena Bonham Carter, F. Murray Abraham, Peter Weller, Olympia Dukakis, Claire Bloom, Michael Rapaport
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Mighty Aphrodite |
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Oddly, this movie opens in a stone amphitheater, with grass, an intoning Greek chorus, but no audience. It turns out that Woody Allen's 1995 movie uses the chorus (boosted with cameos by Dukakis, David Ogden Stiers, and especially Abraham as the Chorus leader and Jack Warden as Tiresias) as ongoing commentator throughout the story of a sportswriter (Allen) with a too-busy gallery-owning wife (Bonham Carter) who adopts and then decides to track down the birth mother of his lovely son. The mother turns out to be a prostitute and sometime porn actress (Sorvino) -- not too bright but very pleasant and optimistic. Our hero gets in deeper and deeper trouble as he gets to know this lovely lost person, tries to fix her life, and keep it all a secret from his wife, on whom an investor (Weller) is putting the heavy moves. Sorvino won an Oscar for best performance by an actress in a supporting role, and she is clearly the best thing in this rather charming but incoherent movie. Most of the scenes between Allen and Bonham Carter -- especially their fight and reconciliation -- are poor (after all, he was 60 and she 29 when the movie was made, but the writing is bad and the acting limp). The chorus works when it is quipping and wisecracking, but not for more than 5 seconds of song (and there is considerably more than that). Best scene is when Allen tries to "reason" with Sorvino's pimp (Dan Moran), and Michael Rapoport is memorable as a farmer-turned-boxer with whom Allen tries to fix up Sorvino. A mixed bag, this one.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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MIGHTY APHRODITE is a movie written and directed by Woody Allen in 1995. Mira Sorvino won the Oscar in the best actress in a supporting role category.
Woody Allen and Helena Bonham Carter, a sportswriter and an art gallery manager, are happily married when one day Helena wants a child. She convinces Woody to adopt a little boy as she doesn't have the time to bear one during nine months. Soon the boy reveals himself as brilliant and Woody develops the urge to know the biological mother of his adopted son. After an investigation, he discovers Mira Sorvino, an extra in porno movies and a hooker.
Brilliant Woody Allen movie with a Greek Choir commenting the crucial moments of the movie.
--Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Mighty Aphrodite |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Comedy, primarily
Yes
Time/era of movie:
- 1980's-1999
Romance/Love/Hugging
Yes
Kind of romance:
- romance (general)
- love triangle/polygon
- seduction (yum!)
- inconveniently married while playing footsy
- rekindling lost love/marriage
Inner struggle or disability
Yes
Taboo Sex Story?
Yes
Kind of sex:
- main character serviced by a prostitute
Kind of comedy
- Woody Allen
Battle with shrink/bum?
- wisdom from a homeless man or bum
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- journalist
Age:
- 40's-50's
Eccentric:
Yes
- eccentric
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
- (man) short/standard curly
Body type
- (man) very skinny
- (man) average
Events of movie makes character more...
- caring
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
- Jewish
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
- healthy but a geeky weakling
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- blonde
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
Body type
- (woman) ample bosom & buttocks
Unclothed?
- very tight clothes
How much in movie?
- 40%
- 80%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- none
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
City?
Yes
City:
- New York
- wealthy
Misc setting
- sports arena
- bar
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
Movie makes you feel...
- encouraged
- spiritual
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
- sex under blankets
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
- Some foul language
If soundtrack VERY NOTICEABLE...
- Jazz/r&b
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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