Woody Allen sometimes claims that his work has not had a major impact on directors younger than himself. THE BIG SPLIT gives the lie to this legend.
THE BIG SPLIT is a contemporary version of ANNIE HALL. The chemistry between the two principal actors is almost as good as that between Allen and Diane Keaton. Here, as in ANNIE HALL, a contrast is made between New York City and Los Angeles--but in this version, the secret is that "the people are exactly the same in both places"! (Woody's comic loathing of L.A. sunlight and new-age madness has been superceded by global-market homogeneity.)
Here, a driving instructor and a filmmaker fall in love and marry in a two-week period. Then, almost as quickly, they divorce.
But the romance continues. And in the closing sequence, the couple and the audience look forward to a happy reunion in the Big Apple which will be "almost" like the happy parts of the earlier relationship.
This film asks that usual question: "Is a heterosexual relationship which endures more than six months possible or desirable in contemporary America?"
The answer to that question is the film itself. As with Woody Allen, THE BIG SPLIT uses lovely music from the thirties and forties (here the big song is "I'm Old Fashioned," a counterpart to "Feels Like Old Times" in ANNIE HALL); its dialogues are wonderfully elliptical, with most of the meaning coming from the close-ups of the faces of the main characters (who are unquestionably fun to watch). We get grainy footage of the L.A.-versus-New-York documentary interspersed with "real time" scenes which nicely counterpoint each other. Lots of loving romantic shots of interiors, of parties, of conversations with one mother and many mutual friends. The black couple make a lovely foil to the white couple whose story we're exploring.
Lots of lovely reflections on and about contemporary American life interweave the romantic satire, which is wholly believable.
THE BIG SPLIT reveals once again that Independent Film is where it's happening in American Cinema. I mourn the passing of Hollywood Video's First Rites series, of which this was a part in 2000.
How ironic that some of the best film being made today vanishes without an audience because Big Distributors won't allow it to find the light of day!
