Miami Rhapsody Movie Review

Director David Frankel loves Woody Allen. Miami Rhapsody is “Woody” through and through, from the big band intro music to the Jewish characters to Mia Farrow’s presence. This time around, Farrow plays the adulterous mother of Sarah Jessica Parker, whose monologue wanders through every conceivable aspect of love, marriage, and infidelity.

The supporting cast is fabulous: Paul Mazursky (father and adulterer), Antonio Banderas (receiving end of adultery), Kevin Pollak (adulterer with pregnant wife). You get the picture. The only failures here are supermodel Naomi Campbell as Pollacks’s love interest, who couldn’t act her way out of an insurance seminar, and Parker herself, whose comedic timing is never quite right. Some people are heralding Miami Rhapsody as Parker’s breakthrough into mainstream acting. Don’t count on it.

Thankfully, the elements of a great neurotic romance and anxiety tale are here, and Parker doesn’t drag it down too far. It’s an all-too-true story without (thankfully) a cop-out finale: more of a Miami ending than a Hollywood ending. Still, there’s a note of hope. I walked out smiling.