the plot of racine andromaque have be describe a a love b and who love c and who love d and who love e and who be dead . i wonder if this be an influence on the plot of september and which feature a scarcely less complicated string of unrequited love interest . howard be in love with lane and who be in love with peter and who be in love with stephanie and who be not sure whether she be in love with peter or not . lane be the owner of the new england country house in which the action take place ( obviously enough during the month of september ) . howard and a teacher and and peter and a struggle writer and be neighbour . stephanie be lane best friend . to add to the confusion and stephanie be married and although her husband do not appear . two other important character be lane mother diane and her stepfather lloyd . september may have be write and direct by woody allen and but it be not what we have come to think of a a woody allen film . for a start it be not a comedy and or even a tragi comedy like melinda and melinda or crime and misdemeanour and both of which combine a serious story with a humorous one . it be quite deliberately make a a deeply serious film and unrelieved by humour . a in a number of allen film from this period and such a crime and misdemeanour or alice and the predominant colour brown and grey and dull yellow and orange be dark or sombre one . the best way i can describe it be a play write by a would be chekhov adapt for the screen by a would be ingmar bergman . indeed and allen describe it a a play on film and and it certainly come across like a piece of film theatre and set entirely indoors with a great number of long take and few close ups . unfortunately and it show just how dull and bore this style of film making can be at it bad . there be no action and no sense of movement or character development and just a group of unsympathetic individual interminably talk over their emotional problem . it might only last for eighty minute while it felt more like eight hundred . mia farrow give some wonderful performance during her association with woody and but here she a lane and dianne wiest a stephanie seem to be compete a to which of them can seem more whiny and miserable . nobody seem to have tell elaine stritch that this be suppose to be a serious drama rather than a comedy and a she play diane a an over the top comic caricature . the male half of the cast be rather well and but none of them be outstanding and sam waterston a peter be nowhere near as good a he be to be in crime and misdemeanour . allen actually shoot the film twice and replace several cast member for the second version . diane be originally play maureen osullivan ( farrow real life mother ) and howard by charles durning and waterston be only the third choice for peter after christopher walken and sam shepard . i wonder what be so bad about the original version . during the course of the film and we learn that diane be once a well know actress and and that many year ago lane and then a teenager and be suppose to have shoot dead diane abusive boyfriend . i find myself wonder why allen do not base his film around this incident and which would surely have make for a more dramatic film that the one he actually make . the reason be presumably that this detail be plagiarise from the life of lana turner and whose boyfriend johnny stompanato be indeed kill by her daughter cheryl in self defence and and a lana be still alive in 1987 too much attention to the incident could have result in a writ from her lawyer . a diane be a hard and brassy and self centre individual and i also wonder if the use of this particular christian name be a spiteful dig at diane keaton and farrow predecessor a woody muse . what make the film even more disappointing be that it come out during a period and the late eighty and which also saw three of woody best film and the purple rise of cairo and hannah and her sister and crime and misdemeanour . if one judge solely on the basis of a lack of joke and september be more serious than any of these film and which all contain a good deal of humour . on the basis of intellectual depth and however and it be the least serious of the four . the other three film all broach weighty philosophical topic and but do so with intelligence and wit and style to produce something of far more interest than the emotional angst and lovesickness which lie at the heart of september . the near it get to intellectual depth be lloyd attempt to use the law of physic to prove that life be pointless . woody should do what he do best and not try to be chekhov or bergman . and certainly not einstein . when i review melinda and melinda i write that none of woody allen film be entirely without interest . i have obviously forgotten september . but then it be an entirely forgettable movie . the song exhort u to try to remember the kind of september when life be slow and oh so mellow . this september may be slow but it be far from mellow . the kind not worth remember . 4/10 .