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Mighty Aphrodite Movie Review Summary

Actors: Woody Allen, Mira Sorvino, Helena Bonham Carter, F. Murray Abraham, Peter Weller, Olympia Dukakis, Claire Bloom, Michael Rapaport

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of Mighty Aphrodite


Oddly, this movie opens in a stone amphitheater, with grass, an intoning Greek chorus, but no audience. It turns out that Woody Allen's 1995 movie uses the chorus (boosted with cameos by Dukakis, David Ogden Stiers, and especially Abraham as the Chorus leader and Jack Warden as Tiresias) as ongoing commentator throughout the story of a sportswriter (Allen) with a too-busy gallery-owning wife (Bonham Carter) who adopts and then decides to track down the birth mother of his lovely son. The mother turns out to be a prostitute and sometime porn actress (Sorvino) -- not too bright but very pleasant and optimistic. Our hero gets in deeper and deeper trouble as he gets to know this lovely lost person, tries to fix her life, and keep it all a secret from his wife, on whom an investor (Weller) is putting the heavy moves. Sorvino won an Oscar for best performance by an actress in a supporting role, and she is clearly the best thing in this rather charming but incoherent movie. Most of the scenes between Allen and Bonham Carter -- especially their fight and reconciliation -- are poor (after all, he was 60 and she 29 when the movie was made, but the writing is bad and the acting limp). The chorus works when it is quipping and wisecracking, but not for more than 5 seconds of song (and there is considerably more than that). Best scene is when Allen tries to "reason" with Sorvino's pimp (Dan Moran), and Michael Rapoport is memorable as a farmer-turned-boxer with whom Allen tries to fix up Sorvino. A mixed bag, this one.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus




MIGHTY APHRODITE is a movie written and directed by Woody Allen in 1995. Mira Sorvino won the Oscar in the best actress in a supporting role category.

Woody Allen and Helena Bonham Carter, a sportswriter and an art gallery manager, are happily married when one day Helena wants a child. She convinces Woody to adopt a little boy as she doesn't have the time to bear one during nine months. Soon the boy reveals himself as brilliant and Woody develops the urge to know the biological mother of his adopted son. After an investigation, he discovers Mira Sorvino, an extra in porno movies and a hooker.

Brilliant Woody Allen movie with a Greek Choir commenting the crucial moments of the movie.
The review of this Movie prepared by Daniel Staebler



Script Analysis of Mighty Aphrodite

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Plot & Themes

Comedy, primarily    -   Yes Time/era of movie:    -   1980's-1999 Romance/Love/Hugging    -   Yes Kind of romance:    -   seduction (yum!)    -   rekindling lost love/marriage Inner struggle or disability    -   Yes Taboo Sex Story?    -   Yes Kind of sex:    -   main character serviced by a prostitute Comedy or Parody about    -   Woody Allen Battle with shrink/bum?    -   wisdom from a homeless man or bum Unmarried Love Triangle?    -   Yes Married, fooling around?    -   Yes

Main Character

Identity:    -   Male Profession/status:    -   journalist Age:    -   40's-50's Ethnicity/Nationality    -   White American    -   Jewish

Setting

United States    -   Yes The US:    -   Northeast City?    -   Yes City:    -   New York    -   wealthy Misc setting    -   sports arena    -   bar

Writing Style

Accounts of torture and death?    -   no torture/death Sex/nudity in movie?    -   Yes What kind of sex:    -   kissing    -   sex under blankets Any profanity?    -   Occasional swearing    -   Some foul language

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