When their best friends announce that they're separating, a professor and his wife discover the faults in their own marriage.When their best friends announce that they're separating, a professor and his wife discover the faults in their own marriage.When their best friends announce that they're separating, a professor and his wife discover the faults in their own marriage.
- Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 12 wins & 17 nominations total
Jeffrey Kurland
- Interviewer
- (voice)
- …
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaHoping to piggyback on the publicity surrounding Woody Allen's breakup with Mia Farrow, TriStar opened the film on 865 screens, the largest number ever given over to a Woody Allen picture. They were rewarded with an opening weekend of 3.52 million dollars, the biggest ever for an Allen film.
- GoofsWhen Sally (Judy Davis) and Jack (Sydney Pollack) are arguing in their living room, one of the crew members can be seen moving in the reflection off the picture glass on the back wall.
- Quotes
Gabe: Change equals death!
Judy: What kind of bullshit? That's just a bullshit line! Maybe you fool your twenty-year-old students into thinking that's some kind of a, an insight or something, but it means nothing! Change is what life is made of! Change - if you don't change, you don't grow, you just shrivel up!
- SoundtracksWhat Is This Thing Called Love
(1929)
Written by Cole Porter
Performed by Leo Reisman and His Orchestra (as Leo Reisman & His Orchestra)
Courtesy of Academy Sound & Vision Limited
Featured review
Husbands and Wives (1992) ****
This is one of Woody Allen's greatest films, but it took me two viewings to fully appreciate it. I first saw it in 1992 at the theatre upon its initial release with my then-girlfriend, when I was 30 and she was 24; but this second time was in 2005 on home video, with me still in the same relationship thirteen years later and married to this same woman for ten of those; it really hit a nerve for me as a middle-aged spouse. I'm not so sure it can appeal to every viewer, but I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to older married couples everywhere.
Allen's hard-hitting film dissects the long-term effects of being with the same person for a long time: familiarity, infidelity, stagnation and indifference. To drive the point home still further, the photography is crudely rendered in a sometimes confusing hand-held camera style which works wonders. Woody's cast is excellent - beginning with the note-perfect Sydney Pollack and strong-willed Judy Davis, who play a bored married couple announcing a trial separation, shocking and convincing their friends (Woody and wife Mia Farrow) to take a closer look at their own vulnerable relationship. Juliette Lewis is once again a very good young actress as a twenty-year-old student in Allen's writing class who becomes infatuated with him and turns out to be his protégé. Liam Neeson is strong as the new man Davis tries to reheat her romantic life with. One of Woody Allen's best performances here too, where he's more reserved and human -- not as whiny or nerdy as we're so accustomed to seeing him. Even better, he actually makes us more interested in the other characters instead of himself.
The mature story is sometimes told in a candid documentary-like format, where the participants alternately give their own perceptions as though they're spilling their guts to a psychotherapist, and then ultimately wind up expressing what they've learned from these experiences. I happen to agree with the idea that a couple must learn to accept imperfections in a marriage and work through them, together.* Released at the height of the media controversy surrounding Allen and his relationship with Mia Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi, there may well have been some similarities on display here.
*(EDITED UPDATE): Unfortunately, my wife and I divorced in 2010, after us being together for 21 years (married for 16 of those). I'm now in a new relationship and I suppose this experience will only serve to make HUSBANDS AND WIVES even more effective on the next viewing. **** out of ****
Allen's hard-hitting film dissects the long-term effects of being with the same person for a long time: familiarity, infidelity, stagnation and indifference. To drive the point home still further, the photography is crudely rendered in a sometimes confusing hand-held camera style which works wonders. Woody's cast is excellent - beginning with the note-perfect Sydney Pollack and strong-willed Judy Davis, who play a bored married couple announcing a trial separation, shocking and convincing their friends (Woody and wife Mia Farrow) to take a closer look at their own vulnerable relationship. Juliette Lewis is once again a very good young actress as a twenty-year-old student in Allen's writing class who becomes infatuated with him and turns out to be his protégé. Liam Neeson is strong as the new man Davis tries to reheat her romantic life with. One of Woody Allen's best performances here too, where he's more reserved and human -- not as whiny or nerdy as we're so accustomed to seeing him. Even better, he actually makes us more interested in the other characters instead of himself.
The mature story is sometimes told in a candid documentary-like format, where the participants alternately give their own perceptions as though they're spilling their guts to a psychotherapist, and then ultimately wind up expressing what they've learned from these experiences. I happen to agree with the idea that a couple must learn to accept imperfections in a marriage and work through them, together.* Released at the height of the media controversy surrounding Allen and his relationship with Mia Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi, there may well have been some similarities on display here.
*(EDITED UPDATE): Unfortunately, my wife and I divorced in 2010, after us being together for 21 years (married for 16 of those). I'm now in a new relationship and I suppose this experience will only serve to make HUSBANDS AND WIVES even more effective on the next viewing. **** out of ****
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- JoeKarlosi
- Jan 22, 2005
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Maridos y esposas
- Filming locations
- Barnard College, Columbia University - 3009 Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA(creative writing class)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $20,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $10,555,619
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,520,550
- Sep 20, 1992
- Gross worldwide
- $10,555,619
- Runtime1 hour 48 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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