Miami Rhapsody: Infidelity, Intellect, and a City That Never Judges

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A Comedy of Words, Not Silence

Have you ever noticed that Neil Simon plays read a lot like Woody Allen movies, which in turn sound rather similar to Alan Alda doing Hawkeye Pierce on MASH*? There’s more cleverness per square inch in the dialogue than you’ll likely find in an entire season of Friends. It’s so condensed in creativity—this New York–Jewish humor—that you could cut it with a knife.

That said, the cadence can become monotonous if left unchecked. The inflections, pauses, and asides are so consistent that once the rhythm crosses a certain line, it risks slipping into pure shtick. The rapid-fire wit becomes distracting as you try to keep up with both the dialogue and an increasingly complex plot. Listen long enough and you may even find yourself talking that way, too.

A Woody Allen Echo Chamber

Such was my experience with David Frankel’s 1995 romantic sex comedy, his big-screen directorial debut. Frankel—who would later direct episodes of Sex and the City and The Devil Wears Prada—tips his hat to Woody Allen so often that it starts to feel less like homage and more like mimicry.

From the monologues to the delivery style to the casting of Mia Farrow, the comparisons pile up quickly. Eventually, the question becomes unavoidable: when does imitation stop being flattery and start becoming legally questionable?

Love, Lies, and Layered Relationships

Sarah Jessica Parker stars as Gwyn Marcus, a Jewish copywriter at a Miami ad agency who is suddenly forced to reevaluate her beliefs about marriage and monogamy. After receiving a casually phrased marriage proposal from her zoologist boyfriend Matt (Gil Bellows), Gwyn discovers that nearly everyone around her is cheating.

Her mother Nina (Farrow) is involved with her own mother’s nurse (Antonio Banderas). Her father Vic (Paul Mazursky) is sleeping with his travel agent (Kelly Bishop). Her newlywed sister (Carla Gugino) is reconnecting with a high school flame, while her brother (Kevin Pollak) is stepping out on his very pregnant wife with a model played by Naomi Campbell.

Keeping track of who is sleeping with whom becomes a task in itself, and one can’t help wondering if the film could have made its point with fewer examples. Still, to its credit, Miami Rhapsody avoids heavy-handed moralizing and manages to land without resorting to patronizing life lessons.

Performances and Missed Notes

Parker is entirely at home in this genre, making the film feel like a clear precursor to Sex and the City. Mia Farrow delivers a solid performance, though her character lacks the elegant sophistication seen in her earlier work. Paul Mazursky comes off more mob-adjacent than upper-class patriarch, though the distinction may be academic.

Antonio Banderas has the Latin lover routine down but overplays the comedy with excessive mugging. Gil Bellows, meanwhile, leans too heavily on charm, leaving certain moments emotionally underdeveloped.

Miami as Philosophy, Not Place

In a film bursting with dialogue, Miami itself often slips by as a tropical blur. There are a few standout moments: skyline shots, scenes along Ocean Drive, a beautifully framed view of the Colony Hotel, and Naomi Campbell posing at a beachside fashion shoot with turquoise water stretching behind her.

Still, most scenes could have been shot anywhere, highlighting the drawback of dialogue-driven films: the visuals take a backseat. Miami is celebrated more in conversation than on screen, used less as a physical location and more as an idea.

That idea is summed up perfectly in the film’s closing reflection:

“I guess I look at marriage sort of the same way I look at Miami. It’s hot, and it’s stormy, and occasionally a little dangerous—but if it’s really so awful, then why is there still so much traffic?”

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Editor’s Note: Originally published on June 21, 2007, this article was updated in 2026 for clarity while preserving Doug’s original voice and perspective on Miami culture.

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