Plot: Married New Yorkers Lenny Weinrib and Amanda Sloan, a sports writer and an art gallery employee respectively, have a five year old son, Max Weinrib, who they adopted when he was one day old. They decided to adopt instead of have a baby of their own largely as it was less of a disruption in especially Amanda's life, she who arranged everything. Lenny believes they have hit a rough patch in their marriage as Amanda seems focused on making connections to open her own gallery, which means them networking with people who Lenny doesn't much like, such as her current boss Jerry Bender, who Lenny is certain wants to take Amanda away from him. The one bright light Lenny sees in their personal life is Max, who was recently tested as being in the genius category. As such, Lenny believes that Max's biological parents must have been remarkable people, Lenny and Amanda only knowing that the mother was a single woman. With the records sealed as to her identity, Lenny embarks on trying to find the mother, deep in his heart possibly to enter into a relationship with her seeing as to the state of his own marriage. Without telling Amanda, he is able to track down the mother, a dim but good-hearted porn star cum prostitute who generally goes by the name Linda Ash. She unrealistically has aspirations to make it on the legitimate stage. When Lenny eventually does meet Linda, he doesn't tell her that he and Amanda were the people who adopted her son, she believing he just another John. Unable to find any genes within Linda's family that would have produced someone the caliber of Max, Lenny proceeds to try and transform Linda into his vision of what Max's biological mother should be, meaning getting her into a respectable career to which she is suited, and finding her a nice guy so that they can start a family. As these stories have the potential to play out like a Greek tragedy, a Greek chorus is constantly present to comment on the proceedings and often give advice, which Lenny often ignores.
Alternative Plot: When Lenny (Woody Allen) and his wife, Amanda (Helena Bonham Carter), adopt a baby, Lenny realizes that his son is a genius and becomes obsessed with finding the boy's biological mother in hopes that she will be brilliant too. But when he learns that Max's mother is Linda Ash (Mira Sorvino), a kindhearted prostitute and porn star, Lenny is determined to reform her immoral lifestyle. A Greek chorus chimes in to relate the plot to Greek mythology in this quirky comedy.
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