Whatever Works (2009)
Forget for a minute if possible that this is a Woody Allen movie. Pretend it's a Larry David movie, which it is. For now. He dominates. He dominates in that oppressive loud singleminded obnoxious way, complaining and putting people down.
Good. Now cast him against the opposite, played by Evan Rachel Wood. A charming quaint naive gentle girl becoming a woman. He's unattractive, she is not. He's old, she is not. He's a genius, she is--well, she thinks she isn't, and he certainly thinks she isn't.
And that's where some of the funniness kicks in. Not just the ongoing tirades of David but with the strange conflict of these two types, as characters. Or characters as types. When other characters are added to this it's a relief in a way, but we still depend on the two of them for the main axis that the others intersect. So her mother arrives and becomes outrageously transformed. And her father, later, the same. Hilariously. And then David meets the woman of his dreams and you see that Wood's role was partly to soften him up for a slightly different outlook on things.
Because it's a Larry David movie.
So what about Woody Allen? Well, it's nice at first that we don't see David trying to be Allen, which has happened in other Allen movies where he's not the leading man. And some of the existential jokes about the empty universe and so on are totally Woody Allen thoughts yet they work in David's delivery, too. What you miss eventually is Allen's nuances, or at least I did. You might be glad not to have his whiney kvetching, but at least there was a variety to the moods and the kinds of responses he had to situations. David is for more homogenous, and I got a little grated and bored by him. Luckily, just in time, other things happened and all was well.
The ensemble interactions, with people sleeping with other people and the New York world being kind of incestuous and free-floating, should be familiar to anyone since "Annie Hall," or at least since "Hannah and Her Sisters." It is almost a parody of itself here, though, with funny lines that are a bit obvious and with an exaggeration that is simply excess rather than twisting into something surreal or magical. Or just staying within normal bounds of hilarious regular life. It's almost like this is Allen's Bunuel period, which might extent to "Midnight in Paris" as well.
There are few clunkers in Allen's history but this isn't one them. It's also not a great masterpiece, either, which Allen also has made. Keep a tempered expectation and it'll be a lot of unsurprising fun. And Wood is absolutely terrific.
Forget for a minute if possible that this is a Woody Allen movie. Pretend it's a Larry David movie, which it is. For now. He dominates. He dominates in that oppressive loud singleminded obnoxious way, complaining and putting people down.
Good. Now cast him against the opposite, played by Evan Rachel Wood. A charming quaint naive gentle girl becoming a woman. He's unattractive, she is not. He's old, she is not. He's a genius, she is--well, she thinks she isn't, and he certainly thinks she isn't.
And that's where some of the funniness kicks in. Not just the ongoing tirades of David but with the strange conflict of these two types, as characters. Or characters as types. When other characters are added to this it's a relief in a way, but we still depend on the two of them for the main axis that the others intersect. So her mother arrives and becomes outrageously transformed. And her father, later, the same. Hilariously. And then David meets the woman of his dreams and you see that Wood's role was partly to soften him up for a slightly different outlook on things.
Because it's a Larry David movie.
So what about Woody Allen? Well, it's nice at first that we don't see David trying to be Allen, which has happened in other Allen movies where he's not the leading man. And some of the existential jokes about the empty universe and so on are totally Woody Allen thoughts yet they work in David's delivery, too. What you miss eventually is Allen's nuances, or at least I did. You might be glad not to have his whiney kvetching, but at least there was a variety to the moods and the kinds of responses he had to situations. David is for more homogenous, and I got a little grated and bored by him. Luckily, just in time, other things happened and all was well.
The ensemble interactions, with people sleeping with other people and the New York world being kind of incestuous and free-floating, should be familiar to anyone since "Annie Hall," or at least since "Hannah and Her Sisters." It is almost a parody of itself here, though, with funny lines that are a bit obvious and with an exaggeration that is simply excess rather than twisting into something surreal or magical. Or just staying within normal bounds of hilarious regular life. It's almost like this is Allen's Bunuel period, which might extent to "Midnight in Paris" as well.
There are few clunkers in Allen's history but this isn't one them. It's also not a great masterpiece, either, which Allen also has made. Keep a tempered expectation and it'll be a lot of unsurprising fun. And Wood is absolutely terrific.