September (1987)

Following the great critical success of both Hannah and Her Sisters and Radio Days, Woody Allen returned to dramatic fare with 1987's September. The decision clearly baffled most audiences, in much the same way that Interiors (following Annie Hall) had confused them nearly ten years before. While currently the least successful Allen film to date, and easily the weakest of his dramatic trilogy, it is still at times an intriguing picture.

This heavy handed story of loneliness and frustration centers around six characters, and is set entirely inside of a single country house. The house belongs to Lane (Mia Farrow), a woman recently recovering from a breakdown. Howard (Jack Warden) is her neighbor in the country, a man who has gradually fallen in love with Farrow's character. Dianne Wiest plays Stephanie, Lane's best friend, coming to visit her for a while, leaving a husband and family back in New York. Waterson plays an aspiring writer who has become Farrow's tenant in the home, renting out a room in hopes of writing his book, though Lane soon falls in love with him. Strich plays Diane, Lane's overbearing mother and an aging actress who still has plenty flamboyance and character. Warden rounds out the cast as Lloyd, her husband and Lane's stepfather.

This is a story of unrequited love, as each and every character (excluding the mother and father) are in love with someone who loves someone else at the house. The 88 minutes of September explore these characters, in the autumn of their life, still searching for emotional connections. The film itself is quite tragic, a European drama in the style of Bergman's chamber films, which involve you emotionally but never grant you the satisfactory Hollywood conclusion. The film, in my opinion, is a step back from Allen's dramatic work in Interiors, though he was quick to redeem himself with the brilliant Another Woman the following year. Despite all of its weaknesses the film does manage to look remarkably beautiful in its cinematography (perhaps Carlo Di Palma's best work) and remains a noble, if failed, effort on Allen's part.

Release Date: December 18, 1987

Domestic Total Gross: $486,434

Distributor: Orion

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