Whatever Works (Woody Allen, 2009)

WHATEVER WORKS

***½

If anyone other than Woody Allen wrote and directed this gentle farce – or even if Allen himself did before his most recent divorce – its critical drubbing would be inconceivable. It’s neither the best or worst thing that Allen has delivered this decade, though in many ways it is the most representative: an underrated, charming, deceptively resonant bit of fluff, completely divorced from the wit, scope and wisdom of Woody’s vintage years, yet thoroughly warm and likable on its own terms.

Whatever Works

Starring: Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood Comedy, 2009

A caustic eccentric man recounts his tales of marriage and attempted suicide. He leaves his well to do lifestyle in favor of a meager existence and this is the story of what happens along the way.

• The opening "monologue" was way too long for me.
• I got this movie basically because I like Evan Rachel Wood. She was good as usual for some reason but for some reason her accent wasn't that convincing to me.
• The actors actually addressed the audience which was different.
• This movie felt more like a theatrical play to me.

2 Stars

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Just Me

Last updated: 2010-03-13 22:39:33 by user05

Movies 365: Day 2 – Whatever Works

Another year, another Woody Allen film, but does Whatever Works fall in the same category as Match Point and Vicky Christina Barcelona, or is it another Scoop or Melinda and Melinda? The answer is, I’m not sure. Well, it doesn’t fall under into the same category as the definitive triumphs, at the same time, it doesn’t really seem to be a failure either. Whatever Works lies somewhere in between.

Larry David plays Boris Yellnikoff, a Nobel level physicist who specializes in string theory and quantum mechanics, as neurotic as most Woody Allen characters, and as prickly and misanthropic as the fictionalized Larry David from his hit TV show Curb Your Enthusiasm. As the film opens, Boris speaks with some of his friends, eventually breaking the fourth wall, speaking to the audience as he rants about the state of the world, before beginning to tell his own personal tale, and why his own philosophy is “whatever works.”

Boris and his wife divorce shortly after a failed suicide attempt, besides moving to a smaller apartment, Boris also leaves the academic world and begins teaching chess to the neighborhood youth for money. One night Boris meets Melodie St. Ann Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood) a Mississippi beauty queen who left the south to make it big in New York. He takes her in, and the two become friends, as he expounds to her his views on the universe and world at large. Eventually, though unlikely in the real world, but all too probably in a Woody Allen film, the two fall in love and marry. It’s telling that Boris, who has up until this point found Melodie to be an attractive, though dumb person seems to fall in love with her almost instantly when she returns from a date, drunk regurgitating his rants.

The film works well during this stage, though the romantic chemistry never really becomes apparent between the two, the way the two actors play off each other works very well. In particular, the scene where Melodie explains to Boris the story of how she lost her virginity is quite funny, with Wood playing the innocent doe-eyed part quite well, as David plays the part he’s perfected over the past nine years on Curb as well as he ever has.

After the marriage, the film kind of goes off the rails as the narrative swings wildly into screwball comedy territory, Patricia Clarkson shows up as Melodie’s mother, a typical cliche of a modern Southern woman. Understandably dismayed by her daughter’s choice in spouse, she begins to mettle, trying to set Melodie up with a British actor. At the same time, she begins seeing first one, then two (at the same time no less) of Boris’ friends, and eventually becoming a celebrated photographer, soon Ed Begley Jr. shows up as Melodie’s father who attempts to win back his wife.

The film twists and turns too quickly during it’s last forty-five minutes to make any of the changes the characters go through believable. Were it not anchored by a solid performance by Larry David, the film, which only sort of half works as it is, would not work at all. Moderately entertaining at times, Whatever Works is unfortunately a lesser work by Allen, who has proven that he’s still capable of producing entertaining and thought provoking works, when he’s not getting bogged down by stuff like this.

Whatever Works

First of all, if you have never watched a Woody Allen movie (he writes and directs all his movies by the way, and years ago used to star in them too...fun little fact right there) before, stop reading this review and go watch"Annie Hall" (aka the only other Woody Allen movie I have personally watched and also one of Woody Allen's best). It's a great, funny movie from 1977 that stars Woody Allen and Diane Keaton. Anyway, back to "Whatever Works"... It has a strong cast that includes Larry David, Rachel Evan Wood, Ed Begley Jr., and Michael McKean (who is a great comedic actor and is used far to little in the movie). The plot is pretty predictable: somehow Larry David's character, an extremely angry man who basically doesn't believe in anything and hates all people, falls in love (sorta, kinda) with Rachel Evan Wood's character...she runs away from home and ends up at Larry David's house...yes. Larry David is a good 40 years older...yes, that is weird and gross on a couple levels. Let's move on...their whole relationship seems contrived and there really is no chemistry between the two...of course the end comes and everyone gets thrown a little snafu. The ending by the way isn't that great and I found it to be unbelievable and abrupt...but the movie as a whole was pretty funny. Larry David had the best lines, many times talking directly to the audience which I do like, but Woody Allen did it better in "Annie Hall." And generally speaking, angry people ranting about everything they can think of is pretty amusing for me...but Woody Allen could have done better...and the fact he is 73 is no excuse. A certain Clint Eastwood is nearing 80 and still making wonderful movies (yes, I would call "Changeling" and "Gran Torino" both wonderful. If you haven't seen them yet...what are you waiting for? Just do it....two of the best movies of 2008 in my opinion).

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Whatever Works

Woody Allen has written 42 original screenplays. Stop and think about it.

If he didn't loathe the award he'd have two best screenplay Oscars on his shelf and fourteen nominations. Did you get that? Fourteen nominations. He's written both comedies and dramas. Actors work for free just to appear in his films.

Times may have changed. The culture may have moved away from him. But Allen himself is what he always was. Through a forty year Hollywood career, the man never burned out. He never grew bored with his art. He never fell victim to drugs or alcohol. Never got fat. Never turned into an egomaniacal, self-destructive recluse.

(Okay, so he married his step-daughter. But that was hardly a self-destructive act. It hurt his image, sure, but if anything it reinvigorated his interest in art and life. Something an alcohol addiction never does.)

Woody Allen is seventy years old and still writing. Every day.

It's time to admit the obvious:

This guy is Mozart. This guy is Shakespeare.

The list of great screenwriters in movie history should begin with Woody Allen and leave the next four spaces blank out of sheer respect.

42 original screenplays in 40 years. End of argument.

So what works in Allen's latest effort, "Whatever Works?"

Lots.

First off, Larry David works as main character Boris Yellnikoff. Boris is a sour-tempered ex-physicist who teaches chess and commiserates with old cronies who tell him to lighten up. By the end of the movie he does.

The catalyst for this transformation is a teen runaway named Melody St. Ann Celestine, played by Evan Rachel Wood. She begs to be let into Boris' apartment one night, and once there she refuses to leave. Through Melody, nearly every other character in the story is brought to Boris' generally disapproving attention: her southern baptist mother and father, her age-appropriate suitors, even an unlikely love interest for Boris at the very end.

"Whatever Works" is a simple story: boy meets girl, boy loses girl and -- you guessed it! -- boy finds new girl. But while it may not break new ground, neither does it bore us, confuse us or waste our time. It takes us somewhere familiar with a lot of laughs and a lot of emotional honesty along the way.

There are small gems everywhere, like the pointed (though unspoken) observation of how women can alter their personalities to please whatever men can help them most at a particular point in their lives.

Likewise, the men in "Whatever Works" are largely concerned with impressing women, usually by feigning much more intellectual prowess, wisdom or romantic spirit than they actually possess.

If this makes the men shallow and the women expedient, well, so be it. The movie does not judge, nor does Boris. (Unless he judges everyone lacking alike.)

Larry David's Boris is grumpy, pessimistic and reliably funny. He thinks life is pointless and full of disappointment, but he's old enough to take it all with a philosophical shrug.

When Boris discovers a measure of happiness at the end of the movie, he takes it with the same philosophical shrug. He knows that happiness does not come and go at the whim of mortals but follows a more headstrong impulse. We may think at times we have life all figured out, but we are much mistaken.

He thus achieves the ultimate insight of any artist, which is, of course, that no ultimate insight is possible. Maybe no insight of any kind is possible, except that whatever works for a given person at a given time... is good. In a universe where everything is relative and nothing lasts for long, let alone forever, that's as good a polestar as we are ever likely to find.

SCORE:

How Accomplished: 75/100

How Much I Enjoyed: 82/100

Whatever Works

Every time I see a Woody Allen movie I cry a little.
Reason1: Consistency. When I was standing in line at the movie theater, there was a young couple behind me, who seemed unsure whether they wanted to see the movie „Whatever works“. Maybe the title threw them. The nice girl at the counter turned around to her colleagues and asked for a synopsis of the movie. My almost Pavlovian response was: „It is a Woody Allen movie”. Apparently, some people need more info. Really? How on earth is that possible? They didn’t look Amish, but maybe they have been part of a secret government experiment and had their cinematic cortexes removed. Highly probable. He’s churning out at least one a year, for heaven’s sake.
Reason2: Flawlessness. Thankfully I am not eternally traumatized by “Everything you always wanted to know about sex” although I think the collage of images I remember from it might provide a highly revealing look into my deranged psyche. I have ignored Woody Allen movies for years after seeing “Celebrity”, which I completely despised. And then there is the whole daughter/wife thing. But I really don’t want to get into that. Then I saw “Matchpoint”, totally unprepared for its simplistic elegance. And then I found out just how many great Woody Allen movies I have missed. Anyone who has ever dipped their little toe in the bracing waters of the strudel that is screen writing can only benefit from the compiled neurosis that produces such effort and flawless and annoyingly elegant writing. It is almost disconcerting.
Reason3: Casting. After wolfing down 6 seasons of “Curb your Enthusiasm”, I have developed an appreciation for Larry David, despite the fact that he reminds me of my father. “Curb your enthusiasm” is not available in German. For good reason, the “SoupNazi” never was a big hit over here.
Woody Allen and Larry David are a match made in neurotic movie heaven. Allen could have easily cast himself, but he made a brilliant choice that makes you wonder whether the two weren’t separated at birth.
The minute Boris Yellnikoff started ranting to the audience, about the randomness and worthlessness of the existence, I loved this movie. Larry David is good. He is really good. And he is not even playing himself. Talking to the camera is rarely done convincingly. In fact, the entire cast is stellar.
Reason4: It threads like fold recognition. Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David), all Gilgamesh and quantum physics meets barely legal Mississippi runaway Melodie St. Ann Celestine (let it roll off your tongue and weep that you didn’t think of that, kids). A roommate arrangement turns into marriage despite Boris’ reclusive rage and because of Melodie’s eyelash-batting impressionableness. After all, when it comes to love, “whatever works” is Boris’ motto. This unholy matrimonial bliss is disrupted when Melodie’s mother Marietta (Patricia Clarkson) suddenly shows up. She among other things relentlessly tries to fix her daughter up with a man named Randy James (Henry Cavill). Ok, now that is making me cry.
Yes, it is yet again another old geezer young woman scenario. Interestingly enough, it is not getting old. Who dares to mesh religious fanatics, misanthropy, beauty pageants and quantum mechanics into one movie? And then turns it around into a statement that could possibly save the modern world. Apparently it is all string theory, really, and love. Who’d have thought?
Reason5: Cut, Woody, cut. And as an editor it sometimes drives me nuts how he doesn’t cut. Just had to mention that.
Reason6: Despite Boris’ disclaimer, this one actually is a feelgood movie and a hilarious one at that: „That’s why I can’t say enough times, whatever love you can get and give, whatever happiness you can filch or provide, every temporary measure of grace, whatever works “.
Science is saved by love. Hooray. Damn you, Woody!

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Last updated: 2009-12-26 04:45:05 by cometkowalski

WHATEVER WORKS

While I happen to be a big Larry David fan (Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm are two of my favorite shows), I prefer to see him doing his own material.  Here, he is in someone else’s hands – Woody Allen’s.  I have only seen a few of Woody Allen’s other movies but I do know that he wrote this some thirty years ago or so, that usually doesn’t bode too well if something’s been sitting on the shelf that long.
But I went into this movie hoping for the best since Larry David can be so charismatic and fun to watch.  Unfortunately, the material just isn’t as funny as the stuff Larry comes up with on his own show.  His character, Boris, isn’t completely different from Larry David himself… just much more negative.  Boris is a total misanthrope, one of those people who finds a way to look at the bad side of everything.  He doesn’t have hope for society or civilization or anything at all really.  This causes him to live a life by himself where he sticks to his normal routines that keep him feeling okay.
But then one day, a very pretty and young homeless girl named Melodie (played by Evan Rachel Wood) appears outside his home looking for shelter.  He tries to shun her off immediately, yet her endearing persistence wears him down.  He lets this stranger stay at his home but her dumb and charming personality doesn’t change him a bit.  In fact, what’s interesting is that it starts to make her more of a pessimist like himself.  While Woody Allen is notorious for his own May-December marriage in real life, the relationship here doesn’t get icky or gross as Boris really isn’t even interested in anything sexual.  Remember he finds something negative in almost everything, that even includes sex.
Some of the things that come out of Boris’s mouth can be funny, but most of them just brought chuckles out of me; although the MUCH older crowd that I saw this movie with did find it laugh-out-loud funny.  Besides that, the movie veers into the ridiculous and goes way over the top.  I prefer movies about relationships to be at least somewhat realistic and this one certainly is not.  I’ll stick to watching Larry David write his own material, maybe had he written this script it would have been a lot better.

Recommendations: The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Se7en , 25th Hour

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-philadelphia/danny-porcaro

Whatever Works (Woody Allen, 2009)

Whatever Works is a new film by the most prolific American filmmaker of his generation – Woody Allen. After a four-film hiatus from making pictures in America, the master of neurotic and offbeat romantic comedies returns to his beloved New York to shoot his latest film, a decent modern reworking of themes explored in one of his masterpieces, Manhattan (1979), and a nostalgic throwback to the Allen of old (a welcoming attribute I would say).
 
In Larry David, Allen has found an actor who could anchor, to a large extent, the role usually played by the director himself, especially in his early films. David plays Boris Yellnikoff, a mostly lonely and isolated old New Yorker whose view of the world is often nihilistic and one of extreme pessimism. A self-professed guru of life and its pointlessness, he encounters a penniless young woman named Melodie (Evan Rachel Wood) one night, and allows her to seek temporary refuge in his home. Melodie soon grows an affection for Boris and falls in love with him, much to the latter’s objection.
 
Things change for the bizarre when Melodie’s mother and later, her father find her to be married to Boris. The situation then evolves into a complex (and often hilarious) labyrinth of relationship issues. The screenplay is sharp and witty and occasionally comes close to what Allen would have achieved in his prime. The character interplay, especially, is a delight to watch because it explores themes of social prejudice, cross-generational romance, and homosexuality through situational examples which are specially designed to evoke the most laughter.  
 
Interestingly, Whatever Works is like a theatrical play shot on film. Just five minutes into the picture, David’s character breaks the fourth wall and speaks to us at length. Initially, viewers may be uncomfortable with the direction Allen is taking the film. Moreover, David does not appear to be very appealing early on; he complains about life and we are forced to awkwardly listen to his irrational ramblings. Any concern that the film will become an exercise in audience endurance slowly disappears with the introduction of Melodie.
 
Melodie is in my opinion central to whether Allen’s film will succeed or fail. Thankfully, she succeeds in complementing Boris and reduces the awkwardness viewers would have felt during the first-quarter of the film. She is the pivot in which all of the film’s situational contexts balance upon and their eventual relevance to the film’s development as a comical social satire. Whatever Works is the same old Allen but different in an odd, washed-and-ironed way. The great American director is capable of much better though.  
 
SCORE: 7.5/10
 
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Recommendations: Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010), To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962), The Visitor

Singapore's Most Prolific Film Blogger @ www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com