If you like Larry David from "Curb Your Enthusiasm," you'll love this 2009 film from Woody Allen, "Whatever Works," starring David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, and Ed Begley Jr.
David, as usual, plays an impossible human being, Boris, who "almost was nominated" for either the Pulitzer or Nobel Prize, I can't remember which, a self-described genius who sees nothing but gloom and doom wherever he turns. He sees the world going to hell in a handbasket, and after he finishes describing it, you will, too, if you don't already. I admit it's looking pretty bad.
Then he meets Melody, a young runaway southern girl who moves in on him - first she wants food, then, being homeless, she needs a place to stay. Boris winds up marrying her.
When her mother (Patricia Clarkson) arrives, she is appalled by the way Boris lives (in a dump) and his advanced age. She immediately sets out to find someone else for Melody. While looking, she also finds herself and becomes an artistic photographer who sleeps with every man she meets. Then Melody's father (Begley) arrives, and I'll stop there.
The acting is terrific, with Evan Rachel Wood turning in a wonderful performance as an upbeat, sweet southern gal who is fascinated by Boris even if she doesn't always get what he's saying. Begley is a riot, and Clarkson has a different kind of role for her, less serious but no less intense.
Someone on this board said Woody Allen is obsessed with death, sex, and intellect. Whoever said that left out May-December relationships, at which he seems to be an expert. I have no idea whether anything printed about him at the time Blue Jasmine came out is true but there's no denying his interest in the under-25 crowd.
This is talky movie with a lot of humor, and we don't have David doing a Woody impression. Rather, he talks more like himself, and some of the dialogue is a riot.
And like all of Woody's films, there's a theme. In Match Point, it was luck; In Crimes and Misdemeanors, life goes on after mortal sin, and here it's if you have a chance at happiness, take it. Do whatever works. I liked it.
