PLENTY OF REASONS TO LOVE THE CHARMING 'MELINDA'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

A NEW Woody Allen movie long ago stopped qualifying as an event. What's nice about his latest, ``Melinda and Melinda,'' is that it doesn't feel like a wake.

After a disastrous three-picture run - ``The Curse of the Jade Scorpion,'' ``Hollywood Ending'' and ``Anything Else'' - that found Allen dishing out thin riffs on past triumphs, ``Melinda and Melinda'' shows that the Woodman can still make us smile and feel something for the self- absorbed Manhattanites that populate his work.

The movie's conceit is that there's a thin line between tragedy and comedy. Or as Melinda herself puts it when asked if she's crying tears of sorrow or tears of joy, ``Aren't those the same tears?'' It's a subject that Allen has explored in many of his best films, and while ``Melinda and Melinda'' doesn't produce consistent, big laughs or great drama, it does have a sharpness and an emotional potency that have been sorely missing from the filmmaker's recent work.

As the title hints, there are two Melindas here. In the film's opening scene, two writers (Wallace Shawn and Larry Pine) argue over dinner whether the ``deeper reality'' of life is a joke or a disaster. A dining companion offers the story of Melinda, and each writer spins the tale to suit his view of the world.

In the tragic version, Melinda (played in both stories by Radha Mitchell) is a high-strung, unstable force of nature who blows into the lives of past friends (Chloe Sevigny, Jonny Lee Miller), finding and creating drama at every turn. In the comic account, Melinda is nutty, but not suicidal, a free-spirited powder keg who lights the fire underneath an unemployed actor (Will Ferrell), who's unhappy (though he doesn't yet realize it) in his marriage to an ambitious indie filmmaker (Amanda Peet).

The film skips back and forth between the Melindas, with Allen scoring the comic tale to jaunty Ellington and the dark drama with Stravinsky and Bartok. The twin-story gimmick works for many reasons, not the least of them the luminous Mitchell (who played wife roles in ``Man on Fire'' and ``Finding Neverland''), who finds the shadings in the character that nicely underscore the movie's premise. It's a career-making turn.

Ferrell enhances his reputation, too. His ``Saturday Night Live'' days showed his gifts as a mimic; here, he makes for a fantastic Woody stand-in, sweating and stammering through embarrassing situations, but also stamping the character with a comic authority that is purely his own. Watching Ferrell here is a joy, reason enough to recommend ``Melinda and Melinda'' to anyone looking for a good time at the movies.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

MELINDA AND MELINDA - Three stars

(PG-13: adult situations involving sexuality, thematic material)

Starring: Radha Mitchell, Will Ferrell, Chloe Sevigny, Jonny Lee Miller, Amanda Peet.

Director: Woody Allen.

Running time: 1 hr. 39 min.

Playing: In selected theaters.

In a nutshell: Woody Allen returns to form, even if it's an echo of past triumphs, in a musing on the thin line between tragedy and comedy.

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Will Ferrell finds himself drawn to the free-spirited Radha Mitchell in ``Melinda and Melinda.''