And then there was one! With this release of 1992’s Husbands and Wives, there remains only one film directed by Woody Allen not available on DVD: his first directorial affair, 1966’s What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (Allen did one segment of 1989’s anthology New York Stories as well, and it also hasn’t appeared on DVD, but I leave it out of the equation; I only considered Allen’s full-length productions.) If and when that one will make it onto shelves, I can’t say, but I’m happy to finally round out Allen’s other flicks with Wives.

Not that I can say I really looked forward to it. I’ve now seen every Allen film other than Lily, and I’ve felt they offered a mixed bag. Most of his genuinely bad material appeared in the Nineties, and since that’s the era from which Wives came, I had my doubts about it.

To my surprise, I actually found Wives to provide one of Allen’s better flicks of the era. Perhaps that’s because with Wives he avoided his usual attempts at pretentiousness and seemed to aim his camera at himself. I don’t know how much of Wives came from Allen’s own life - maybe none of it - but much of the movie appeared to connect with his situation at the time.

At the very start of Wives, long-time married couple Jack (Sydney Pollack) and Sally (Judy Davis) tell their friends Gabe (Allen) and Judy Roth (Mia Farrow) that they’re splitting. This shocks the Roths, and essentially, the movie follows the shockwaves and various personal revelations. Writer/teacher Gabe develops a potentially romantic relationship with a bright student named Rain (Juliette Lewis). Jack quickly shacks up with sexy aerobics instructor Sam (Lysette Anthony) despite the fact she’s decades younger and not exactly MENSA material.

As for the women, their fates intertwine as Judy tries to help Sally re-enter the dating scene. Sally doesn’t seem happy about this. Her first attempt goes hilariously awry as she remains seriously irate at Jack and uses her date’s phone to scream at her ex. However, matters improve when Judy introduces Sally to her co-worker Michael (Liam Neeson). Though the two seem to have little in common - he’s a pretty easy-going guy, while Sally can’t resist incessant criticism - Michael falls for her, and the two develop a relationship.

All’s well and all that, right? Unfortunately, no, for it seems patently obvious that Judy maintains a serious crush on Michael herself. Since her relationship with Gabe appears to be on the rocks - she wants a kid and he doesn’t, among other issues - her interest in Michael exacerbates the situation.

For better or for worse, all these situations work themselves out by the end of the movie, though to his credit, Allen avoids a neat and tidy conclusion. Though the DVD’s case touts Wives as a comedy, I think that’s a very misleading statement. Yes, the film includes some funny material; among other elements, Sally’s nastiness can be quite amusing. But the overall emphasis remains on the dramatic. The film doesn’t feature the heavy tone seen in efforts like Crimes and Misdemeanors - there’s definitely a lighter attitude at work - but the comic elements stay in the background.

Actually, Allen conducts Wives as though it were a documentary. During the opening scene, this appears via some extremely awkward hand-held camerawork; happily, the image stabilized after that, or else I’d have gotten motion sickness. Other documentary-style techniques abound, such as interviews with the characters conducted by an off-screen personality as well as some narration. Allen doesn’t take this style to its fullest conclusion, however, so the documentary theme seems somewhat confusing; some scenes use it while others appear to skip it for no logical reason.

No matter. While the concept could have been gimmicky - like the annoying and cutesy Greek chorus in Mighty Aphrodite - it actually fit neatly within the framework of Wives. Frankly, after the jarring camerawork of the opening segment, I largely forgot about it; the methods didn’t seem intrusive or awkward for the rest of the film.

Wives represented the last of the 13 films Farrow and Allen made together, and it seems to be the one that most strongly reflects their real-life relationship. Not long after this, the Soon-Yi hit the fan; the couple split when Allen developed a romantic relationship with his wife’s adopted daughter. (Soon-Yi was never related to Allen, but the creepy factor appeared high nonetheless.)

Wives seems like a fitting swansong for Farrow and Allen’s relationships, both cinematic and personal. The scenes in which Gabe and Judy discuss the end of their marriage comes across as especially powerful given the real-life connection; it’s hard to know how much acting actually occurs. While the scene would work in any case, this element makes it all the more effective.

While Allen attempted many other character dramas prior to Wives, it seems like one of the more effortlessly convincing of the bunch. Perhaps that’s because of his personal travails and emotions, but whatever the case, Wives appears to represent real personalities and feelings, unlike many of his other flicks. They often came across as stilted and forced, but Wives avoids those pitfalls.

Husbands and Wives isn’t the best Woody Allen flick of the Nineties, as comedic affairs like Bullets Over Broadway and Sweet and Lowdown were more consistenrly engaging and successful. Nonetheless, Wives nicely blended biting humor with realistic personalities and situations to form one of Allen’s tightest and most effective dramas.

Husbands and Wives appears in both an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 and in a fullscreen version on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the widescreen image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Only the letterboxed picture was reviewed for this article. The film displayed a few problems that likely resulted from the original photography, but it generally appeared very satisfying.

Sharpness seemed solid. The image remained nicely crisp and detailed throughout the movie, as I discerned no significant signs of softness or fuzziness. Jagged edges and moiré effects caused no concerns and I also detected no indications of edge enhancement. Print flaws, on the other hand, created a variety of issues. Much of the movie appeared grainy, and I also witnessed occasional examples of marks, specks, grit, scratches and nicks. Although the defects never became overwhelming, they definitely seemed distracting and excessive at times. Much of the grain seemed to result from the original photographic style, especially since most of it appeared during interior shots; the other flaws made less sense, however.

Colors consistently came across as terrifically distinct and vivid. Outside of some mildly drab interiors, the hues were bright and lively, and the DVD replicated them to great effect. The tones usually remained vibrant and clear. Black levels also seemed nicely deep and rich, while shadow detail generally appeared clean and without excessive opacity; a few of those interiors seemed somewhat flat, but they usually looked fine. At times, Husbands and Wives provided a stunning visual experience, but the various flaws caused me to drop my grade to a “B”.

Woody Allen doesn’t favor multi-channel audio, so along with all of his other films, Husbands and Wives offered only a monaural soundtrack. The mix seemed typical and greatly resembled the audio for many other Allen movies. Dialogue was consistently intelligible and reasonably natural, although some lines came across as mildly edgy. Effects came across as acceptably accurate and distinct. However, the chatty nature of the flick meant that they remained in the background most of the time.

As with many Allen films, all the music heard in the movie came from period jazz recordings. However, Wives offered less music than usual. I heard tunes at the start and end of the picture, but in between very little music appeared. When it did crop up, though, it sounded fine given the age of the source material. The tunes were fairly bright with reasonable fidelity; due to the source, bass response stayed lackluster but range seemed acceptable nonetheless. For the most part, this was another satisfying mono mix, but I just can’t muster much enthusiasm for a single-channel track alongside a 10-year-old movie.

Since Allen doesn’t care for DVD supplements, Husbands and Wives includes almost nothing in that regard. All we find are trailers for Wives and 1993’s Manhattan Murder Mystery. While their options were limited, the disc’s producers could have at least provided some production notes within its booklet; MGM did so for all their releases, and those packages featured some solid information.

To my moderate surprise, Husbands and Wives offered a fairly compelling examination of relationships tested by mid-life crises. Perhaps due to its corollaries with his real life, Woody Allen created an honest and believable piece that stands as one of his best dramatic works. The DVD provides good picture with audio that sounds decent but falters due to the director’s lack of interest in multi-channel mixes. It suffers from a virtual absence of extras, but Husbands and Wives works well enough as a movie that I can endorse the DVD despite these drawbacks.