Critics Corner – “Whatever Works”

Film Outlet	Movie Critic	Rating Given	Review Date
	Prodigal Son	3 / 4 nests	6-15
	Peter Travers	2.5 / 4 stars	6-18
	Lisa Schwarzbaum	C	6-16
	Roger Ebert	3 / 4 stars	6-25
	Critics / Users	C+ / B-	6-26
	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Rating / T-Meter	5.2 / 46%	6-26

Jennifer Aniston was quoted recently as stating most romantic comedies aren’t predicated on the act of falling in love or the characters involved in such an act. It’s more about the scheme they’ve cooked up. This is accompanied by the idea of the “meet cute,” in which the characters must bump into each other in a way that hasn’t been seen before. “I ran you over with my car? Let’s fall in love.” I hesitate to label Whatever Works, the latest film by Woody Allen, a romantic comedy due to the negative connotations involved therein. Instead, it’s a comedy about finding love wherever possible.

Boris Yellnikoff is a genius, or at least he proclaims to be. His story consists of once being considered for a Nobel Prize in the field of quantum mechanics. Perhaps it was the failure to reach this pinnacle achievement that turned Boris cold to the human race. Either way, he says his superior intellect gives him the singularly unique ability to see “the big picture” and it frightens him. He wakes in the middle of the night in panic attacks, announcing that he’s dying, “not now, but eventually.” He associates with a few friends, although he despises the human population and refers to them as either microbes, inchworms or cretins. He’s unsuccessfully attempted suicide and now suffers from a permanent limp after splitting up with his wife because their marriage was too logical and rational for him to bear.

Limping home one night, Boris encounters a “sub-mental” named Melodie St. Ann Celestine. She’s a wide-eyed, 21-year-old, country girl on flee from her adulterous parents. She begs Boris to let her inside his apartment to clean herself up, and after resisting for as long as possible, Boris allows the “half-wit” to stay overnight. The night turns into days, turns into weeks. Through hours of conversation with her intellectual superior, Boris’ views on life rub off on her and she admits to having a crush on him. This eventually changes Boris’ perception of her, and again after fighting off all obvious reason they shouldn’t be together, they get married.

As any marriage with four decades separating the spouses, it has its ups and downs, but by-and-large, it seems functional. Boris is happy to have somebody bow to his masterful mind. One day, however, after a long search, Melodie’s mother shows up at the doorstep. She’s a dedicated Evangelical and lord knows what happens when she finally finds her runaway daughter to discover she’s married to a Brooklyn Jew two score her senior. She faints, then proceeds to make it her mission to find a more suitable husband for her daughter, threatening to wreck the foundation Boris and Melodie had built with each other.

"Who are you supposed to be, my competetion? Yeah, right."

Woody Allen has long been associated with comedy ever since emerging onto the scene some fifty years ago, but it seems his drama films are the more acclaimed, or at least they have been recently. Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Match Point eclipse Scoop, Melinda and Melinda and Anything Else in both notoriety and quality. However, Allen returns to form here in a way that evokes the great Annie Hall. The quickest ways this film can be identified with his former masterpiece is when Boris breaks the fourth wall. One of the most recognizable moments from his Best Picture-winning film is when Allen’s character, Alvy Singer, is stuck in a line waiting for a movie when a blowhard in front of him starts dissecting Federico Fellini’s work, using the words of Marshall McLuhan. Alvy happens to have McLuhan handy and has him tell the blowhard he’s an idiot. Alvy then breaks the fourth wall and says directly to the audience, “Wouldn’t it be great if life were like this?” Boris tells his story to us directly and of course we see it play out, while he references us “out there” from time to time. The trick works just as effectively today as it did in 1977, as it helps to reign the audience in.

Allen is also used to working with the same actors for a few films at a time, but this time out his two leads are entirely new to the world of Woody Allen. In fact, Larry David isn’t really an actor at all. He plays a version of himself in his HBO show, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and all of his work is essentially improvised. This is his first film role, and with Boris he takes up the task of playing the “Woody Allen character.” David is a neurotic, much like Allen, and their pairing is a perfect marriage. David may not be the actor Allen is, but he pulls off the task of the cynical, “world-is-against-me” character he’s asked to so well, I yearned for him to return whenever he was off-screen. The love interest of Melodie is portrayed by Evan Rachel Wood (The Wrestler), who continues her ascent toward being recognized as one of the top actresses of her generation. She plays funny, quirky and dumb, but with a likability you can see Boris growing fond of.

Of course, what really separates this film from Allen’s past few other “comedies” is that it’s funny. It might also be one of Allen’s most personal films. Although the script was apparently written in the 70s and dusted off, it seems to reflect Allen’s current outlook on life. A lot of people have been turned off to Allen, the person, due to his relationship with his at-one-point adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn and his quote, “the heart wants what it wants.” The theme of Whatever Works carries a similar philosophy, while depicting a relationship with a multi-generational gap. This may not change anyone’s perception of Allen, the man, but may work to explain a little bit more about how his mind operates.

It’s been far too long since Allen has been relevant in the comedy world and this may not be his greatest triumph, but it’s far more successful at bringing the laughter than his past few attempts. Those hoping to witness a return to form for Allen in his genre roots will find it here or at least a kick-start to what will hopefully continue on into future years. Allen will almost certainly continue to carve out his niche on the dramatic scale of things, but when he hits the comedic nail-on-the-head, it deserves to be celebrated. Romantic comedy formulas be damned, Woody Allen is having none of it.

Whatever Works is the latest work from legendary writer/director/actor Woody Allen. I’m a causal fan of Allen’s work, but not the big fan our own Prodigal Son is. I have enjoyed such films as Scoop, Match Point and his classic Annie Hall. Though I have yet to see any bad stuff from Allen (which I’m sure he has), I am interested in seeing his pairing with “Seinfeld” co-creator and creator and star of the HBO show “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Larry David.  I loved “Seinfeld” and always thought “Curb Your Enthusiasm” was funny, so it’s good to see two comedic geniuses working together.

"Ever seen 'Searching for Bobby Fischer?' I'm gonna take you DOWN!"

Larry David stars as Boris Yelnikoff, an upper class New Yorker who’s grown weary of his current lifestyle and yearns for a “normal” existence. Boris says he’s “not a likable guy” and is surrounded by “microbes.” He lives in Greenwich Village (if you’ve been to New York, the nicest area of the city) with his wife Jessica (Carolyn McCormick, “Law and Order”) and their relationship is on the rocks. One day, Boris meets Melodie St. Ann Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood, The Wrestler), an obvious out-of-towner who just got to New York from the South.  They quickly become friends and she’s the perfect excuse for Boris to get away from his unwelcome lifestyle. Things get a little difficult when Melodie’s mother, Marietta (Patricia Clarkson, Pieces of April) comes to visit her at her New York apartment. Marietta is a colorful religious southern lady who makes Boris uneasy. Things get even more difficult when Melodie’s equally religious father, John (Ed Begley Jr., Pineapple Express), visits her and wants to get back with her mother.  Boris must use “whatever works” to sort out the confusion before his excuse for a normal life gets as bad as his past life.

Whatever Works was written and directed by Woody Allen and he’s littered with career achievements, most notably Annie Hall, for which he won Oscars for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for Best Actor. I actually would have liked to see him act in this as well, perhaps in a supporting role.  It would have been amusing to see Allen and David going at it on screen. Of course, David is essentially playing the Allen role, anyway. Just in case you need to know more of Allen’s pedigree, since Annie Hall, he’s been nominated five times for Best Director and 13 times for Best Original Screenplay, but winning only once.

"If you keep eating that crap, your butt's gonna be out to here."

I’ve enjoyed Larry David’s writing and acting work on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and I’m looking forward to seeing how he works with a living legend like Allen.  It’s refreshing to see an intelligent comedy come along for once and not ones that pander to the lowest common denominator, like Next Day Air or Year One.

Whatever Works opens June 19^th to a limited release.

Just yesterday I was talking about my excitement for  this film, which of course happens to be one of our most anticipated of the year. We’ll be previewing it later this month, but today we get our hands on the first scene from the film. We got just a brief glimpse during the end of the Oscars montage a couple of months ago and now we get a full-fledged 41 seconds of kinetic ecstasy to come.

Okay, actually the scene isn’t all that much to write home about. It consists of Larry David limping along a pier with Evan Rachel Wood’s wide-eyed girl from Mississippi. Apparently David is some kind of genius and the dialogue is decidedly Woody-like, debating America’s “greatness.”

The film is slated for limited release in June, but is opening the Tribeca Film Festival in New York this week. I wish I was there. I’d imagine we’ll get some early impressions pretty soon and I hope the film is everything the merging of two neurotic personalities promises to be.

Samuel L. Jackson proclaims to be a workaholic, and that may very well be true. It’s one of the major reasons he ended up on our 20 Actors Who Need To Call It A Career list. Woody Allen would never make it on such a list as long as I have a say, but the man is a machine. He’s consistently churned out at least one move per year since 1982! As writer and director and sometimes star. I’m aware that this fervent pace has caused more than a few people to feel the quality of his films has dipped severely, but you’re allowed to miss every once in a while when you can bring a gem like Match Point to the table.

Allen is returning to London were he made the triumvirate of Match Point, Scoop and Cassandra’s Dream. “He’s going, going, back, back, to London, London.” This time, he’s bringing Anthony Hopkins (another worthy addition to our aforementioned “20 Actors” list and Josh Brolin along with him. Like every Woody Allen project, nothing is known about any plot details, nor even a title at this point. Just cast.

Thanks to “Variety” for the great news. Allen currently has Whatever Works with my writing-idol Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood, wrapped up. No news as to when that will be released just yet, other than “sometime in 2009.”

I was turned on to Woody Allen in college and have been a huge fan of his since, so any news concerning an upcoming project of his is definitely welcome. Below is a scene from Play It Again, Sam, which he wrote and starred in, but did not direct. I think this catapulted him to prominence in my eyes:

Allen was also the subject of an episode of one my favorite TV shows, “Seinfeld.” “These pretzels are making me thirsty,” was instantly an iconic line.

As much as I like and respect Allen’s work ethic, and he does receive extra points for writing all his films, Alfred Hitchcock was the ultimate workaholic director. Hitch directed 1.13 movies per year over a 54-year career! That’s counting the latter span after his wife and closest collaborator had a stroke in which he directed only four films in 10 years. An absolute beast!