Woody Allen returned to something resembling form with Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Some called it a smug representation of morally vacuous people; others praised it as an intelligent but light-hearted knockabout farce.
Allen has always been divisive, and Whatever Works probably won’t win him any new fans, or keep those earned by his Spanish jolly. It’s a return to his questionable male fantasy, but thankfully he hasn’t cast himself this time; the real hook comes from the ideal marrying of neurotic star with misanthropic director. Curb Your Enthusiasm genius Larry David is simply playing Larry David, but his and Allen’s world-weary outlook are so entwined that they might as well be channelling one another.
Willingly kicking down the fourth wall of cinema by addressing the audience directly, Boris (David) tells us about his life with all the enthusiasm of a man who is counting down to the end. Divorced and constantly looking for the smallest bits of joy in his otherwise bleak existence, “this is not the feel-good movie of the year”, he tells us from the outset.
His life does find that shard of optimism when against his better judgement he takes in young vagrant, Melody (Evan Rachel Wood). Not with any ulterior motive they strike up a mutually beneficial friendship that’s the core of Allen’s narrative.
“If I have to eat nine pieces of fruit a day in order to live, then I don’t want to live”. This is a choice quote from Boris’s perpetually downbeat vocabulary, and one that makes him incredibly hard to like. This kind of approach works better in Curb because Larry is a bumbling, socially inept nitwit who’s unaware of his inadequacies. You feel sorry for him. Boris, on the other hand is an intelligent guy who’s kind of a jerk. This can lead to some very funny set-pieces, especially the chess-board confrontations with his young opponents, but it also sets a pattern of repetitive monologues on religion, sporting race relations, you name it.
Evan Rachel Wood does a lot to lighten the mood, and even if she and all the characters around her act in a completely unrealistic way, the naive innocence of Melody contrasts brilliantly with Boris’s frustrations.
Whatever Works is peppered with some sharp dialogue and two very good central performances, but it falls apart at about the hour mark to simply remain an average Woody Allen pic, and there have been too many of them recently.
[etRating value=“ 3”]
Allen has always been divisive, and Whatever Works probably won’t win him any new fans, or keep those earned by his Spanish jolly. It’s a return to his questionable male fantasy, but thankfully he hasn’t cast himself this time; the real hook comes from the ideal marrying of neurotic star with misanthropic director. Curb Your Enthusiasm genius Larry David is simply playing Larry David, but his and Allen’s world-weary outlook are so entwined that they might as well be channelling one another.
Willingly kicking down the fourth wall of cinema by addressing the audience directly, Boris (David) tells us about his life with all the enthusiasm of a man who is counting down to the end. Divorced and constantly looking for the smallest bits of joy in his otherwise bleak existence, “this is not the feel-good movie of the year”, he tells us from the outset.
His life does find that shard of optimism when against his better judgement he takes in young vagrant, Melody (Evan Rachel Wood). Not with any ulterior motive they strike up a mutually beneficial friendship that’s the core of Allen’s narrative.
“If I have to eat nine pieces of fruit a day in order to live, then I don’t want to live”. This is a choice quote from Boris’s perpetually downbeat vocabulary, and one that makes him incredibly hard to like. This kind of approach works better in Curb because Larry is a bumbling, socially inept nitwit who’s unaware of his inadequacies. You feel sorry for him. Boris, on the other hand is an intelligent guy who’s kind of a jerk. This can lead to some very funny set-pieces, especially the chess-board confrontations with his young opponents, but it also sets a pattern of repetitive monologues on religion, sporting race relations, you name it.
Evan Rachel Wood does a lot to lighten the mood, and even if she and all the characters around her act in a completely unrealistic way, the naive innocence of Melody contrasts brilliantly with Boris’s frustrations.
Whatever Works is peppered with some sharp dialogue and two very good central performances, but it falls apart at about the hour mark to simply remain an average Woody Allen pic, and there have been too many of them recently.
[etRating value=“ 3”]
