Click here to copy URL

Mighty Aphrodite

1995

Woody Allen

Mira Sorvino, Woody Allen, F. Murray Abraham, Helena Bonham Carter ...

7.1

22,676

Comedy. Romance In New York, Amanda (Helena Bonham Carter) convinces his husband Lenny (Woody Allen) to adopt a child. Years later, after he proves to be extremely intelligent, the adoptive father sets out to find the biological mother who, he believes, must be a genius. Instead, he finds a young woman who is a prostitute (Mira Sorvino) with a scarred past and a very good heart.

	Media	Author	Review
		Janet Maslin The New York Times	"[It] can also stand solidly on its own merits. Ranking in the Allen canon somewhere around 'Alice' or 'The Purple Rose of Cairo'."
		Ian Nathan Empire	"The film's let-down is that Allen never reaches beyond himself (...) As good as this material is, the overall impression is of a great director just ticking over (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"The movie reveals its serious undertones while at the same time developing a plot that lends itself to slapstick (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Desson Thomson The Washington Post	"Clearly, Allen doesn't care to converse with us on that friendly, sleeve-tugging level anymore. Where there was once mordant wit—a dialogue of intellectual, clever secrets between him and us—now there's only nasty bite."
		Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"The subtext of Mighty Aphrodite is a neurotic’s nightmare: A man sees his life as a Greek tragedy while the rest of the world throws stones or just laughs and laughs."
		Hal Hinson The Washington Post	"[It] seems strangely impersonal (...) At best 'Mighty Aphrodite' plays like an elaborate intellectual rationalization for questionable, if not creepy, behavior.
		James Berardinelli ReelViews	"While not up to the level of many of Allen's recent films, [it] is nevertheless an entertaining diversion. The comedy (...) is worthy of some laughs, and the movie has a good sense of irony (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Harlan Jacobson TV Guide	"It's impossible not to remember details of Allen's private life that we'd all rather forget (...) Even so, both the director and his audience could have done without this tiresome apologia (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		Todd McCarthy Variety	"Allen takes a comic, only slightly skeptical look at his compulsion to rescue wayward young women in 'Mighty Aphrodite', a zippy, frothy confection that emerges as agreeable middle-range Woody"

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.