Home

Movie Reviews

TV Addict

DVD Extras

Ill-Literate (Book Reviews)

Listen, Hear (Music)

FilmStarrr (Celebrity Interviews)

Stuf ... (Product Reviews)

...and Nonsense (Site News)

Linkage

Hit me up, yo! (Contact)

 

 

 

 

In his first film made on US shores in five years, Woody Allen dusts off an old script he wrote in the 1970’s to give us Whatever Works.  Employing Larry David as his latest avatar, Allen delivers a diatribe on everything from religion to politics to sex with the single-minded fervor of someone whose pessimistic POV has never been challenged by a single opposing voice.  In Whatever Works, not only is there no rebuttal to the outlandish declarations of Boris Yellnikoff, a man so smart he nearly won a Nobel Prize, he informs us, but by the film’s end, this disagreeable chap will not only have gotten the girl, but he’ll magically change the lives of everyone he comes in contact with, like a grouchy, Bizarro World Pollyanna.

As written by Allen, Boris’ outspoken comments on life and dire prognostications are often amusing, but Larry David’s whiplash sharp delivery becomes almost the entire point of seeing Whatever Works.  The premise of the film is incredibly slight and the center of it all; Boris gives shelter to Melody {Evan Rachel Wood}, a beautiful Southern teenage runaway who falls head over heels for this balding, middle-aged misanthrope with no prospects of wealth or even decent manners, is patent geriatric male fantasy.  Going even further, before the end credits roll, Boris will have had not just one, but three gorgeous women panting after him for no apparent reason.  If you can suspend your disbelief to go with that absurd notion, the rest of the film is your oyster.  The speed with which sweet, dumb Melody parrots Boris’ negativity is blinding; becoming an atheist overnight, because as is inferred throughout the film, believing in any God means you’re stupid.  Next, we meet Melody’s mother, another runaway, all Southern Christian values and not an original thought in her head until Boris and his progressive friends unleash the sexual deviant within.  Out come the black clothes and threesomes as the lady discovers her bohemian side.  Melody’s father tracks them down and finally realises his entire life has been a lie until he gets to the big city.  For all Melody’s initial devotion to Boris, the inevitable occurs and she meets someone born near about the same decade, who doesn’t derogatorily refer to her as a “microbe”.  The idea that none of the Southern Christians had any cultural awareness or minds of their own until they met Boris could be offensive if it wasn’t so cartoonish.  Even the laudable talents of the always-delightful Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley, Jr. playing it very broad as Melody’s parents, can’t dissolve the sour taste of finger-pointing at the dumb Christian red staters.  While the early scenes of Boris mouthing off about any and everything he sees wrong in the world are a hoot, there’s never any change or growth in the character and it’s hard to understand how people can stand to be in the same room with him for very long, much less desire of their own free will to be married to the curmudgeon.  Because we’ve seen Boris’ solution to a dwindling relationship previously, we’re not entirely sure if he actually had feelings for his teenaged wife, or his actions are just a habit; but once Boris is up and around, he’s back to his old crabby self, pursued once more by another attractive young lady. 

Much will be made of Woody Allen’s cinematic return of to the streets on Manhattan.  This time the locations shift downtown to Caffe Vivaldi in Greenwich Village, Federal Plaza near City Hall, Chinatown, and the ninety-nine year old Yonah Schimmel knishery.  Placed against the New York locales, the breezy pacing of Whatever Works does feel like a return of sorts to the lighter fare of Allen’s earlier films, but the overall piece feels tired, overworked and hollow, despite a great supporting cast clearly chuffed to be in a Woody Allen movie giving it their all.  Powered by Larry David as his new and possibly most successful mouthpiece, Whatever Works seems less a Woody Allen film than a very special episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm with Allen as the guest director.

 

~ The Lady Miz Diva

June 18th, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

© 2006-2022 The Diva Review.com

 

 

 

Photos

(Courtesy of  Sony Pictures Classics)

 

 

 

 

Do Your Bit for

Fabulosity.

Don’t hesitate,

just donate.