Customer Reviews

Whatever Works

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

After a string of movies set in Europe, Woody Allen triumphantly returns to his beloved New York for Whatever Works. Since Allen releases a new film each year, it's hit-or-miss with him (rightfully so). This film got less-than-enthusiastic reviews and, as such, I wasn't expecting much from it...But the critics really misrepresented this film, as this is one of Woody's best comedies.

Larry David (of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame) plays Boris Yellnikoff, a caustic, retired physicist who walks with a limp due to a failed suicide attempt. Now, Boris teaches chess to "zombie-minded imbeciles." Evan Rachel Wood plays Melodie, a naïve runaway from Mississippi, who stumbles into Boris' life...Against all odds, the two marry and Melodie's parents (played wonderfully by Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley, Jr.) both, separately, find her.

I'm not familiar with Larry David's previous work, so I don't know how much of this performance carries over from his own persona; but David is playing the Woody Allen role here to perfection. David perfectly captures the neurotic, arrogant genius that is Boris and recites Allen's dialogue as if it comes straight from his own thoughts. Of course, this is a film filled with great performances as can be expected from a film by Woody Allen. Begley, Jr. is particularly surprising as Melodie's father...And while some may not be too impressed by Wood's performance as Melodie, she's very convincing and cute.

This is truthfully one of Allen's best comedies and an all-around great film. The dialogue here is typical, philosophical, sarcastic Allen...But it doesn't just elicit chuckles, but full-on, laugh-out-loud laughter. It's a very intelligent film that not ONLY ranks as one of Allen's best comedies, but one of his best films. I don't see how this film has not received the amount of praise it deserves, because I clearly saw something all the critic's didn't. While the past few years have shown a return to form for Allen, this film stands as a terrific achievement in the Allen catalogue. It's quite honestly one of the best films I've seen this year and it's not to be missed.

GRADE: A

Woody Allen has been a very lucky director in the history of Cinema. I can't think of any other director - with the exception, maybe, of Spielberg - that can still do "his" movies, even if they don't continuously make money. Indeed, with Allen you never know -- he can equally have a hit or a miss, but he still gets financing for his ideas. His latest, "Whatever Works," I am happy to say, is a hit. Actually more than a hit: a treasure. One the best films I have seen in a long time. It is smart and wicked, with great dialogue and very funny --Woody Allen's funny, that is, if you know what I mean: just plain good acting and inspired writing.

Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David) describes himself as a "profound, sensitive soul, with an enormous grasp of the human condition," who always has nightmares about Joseph Conrad's "the horror." He is a brilliant man, who doesn't hesitate to refer to himself as a genius - he is a physicist, who specializes in Quantum mechanics. And he may be right. However, due to the nature of his character and personality, he is not easy to live with. He is divorced, and walks with a limb, because he tried to kill himself by jumping from a window. He earns a living by teaching kids how to play chess (insulting and degrading them), and getting together with his equally intellectual buddies, who patiently hear his rants about the decline of mankind. He claims that he spends his time "trying to express to cretins that, while a black man got into the White House, he still can't get a cab in New York." However, his structured life drastically changes when he meets Melodie (Evan Rachel Wood), a runaway that asked for his help at his doorstep, because she had nowhere to go. He reluctantly accepts, and invites her to stay for a couple of days. Of course, love blossoms, and despite their age and intellectual difference - he is much older and smarter than her -, they eventually get married. They actually live happily ever after - that is, until Marietta (Patricia Clarkson), Melodie's mother, suddenly comes into the picture.

"Whatever Works" functions at every level. It is original and hilarious, with Woody Allen providing evidence that he is still the best smart comedy writer that there is. It would not be a mistake to say that it probably captures Woody's inner feelings and current state of mind, which are summed up in one of the lines of the film: "In the end, the romantic aspirations of your youth are reduced to whatever works." In addition, it is also a subliminal critique to the right-wing mentality that permeates part of our culture. A comedy masterpiece. (USA / France, 2009, color, 92 mins).

Reviewed on October 27, 2009 by Eric Gonzales from [...]

Larry David does Mr. Cranky better than anyone and still remain funny. Pessimism as comedy is an art form when done right.

A totally different movie. Nice easy pace. Soundtrack is really good as Woody's movies usually have. Only a few laugh out loud moments for me but I had a smile the whole movie. Larry's line as they enter the photo gallery was hilarious. Just plain interesting movie. Really liked this one. Something NEW is almost always worth an extra star. E R Wood was really charming and with a very good supporting cast.

I hope Jessica Hecht gets more movies roles, very good presence but just a small part here. IMBD lists more roles coming up for her. Hope they're bigger. Woody is really good but some of his movies miss for me. Not this one. Worth seeing.

You want him to make nice? Ain't gonna happen! Woody is a "yiddisher Kop" (a wise guy) bread n' buttered. (Note that I'm mixing my cultural idioms here, just as the film mixes Manhattan and Mississippi, or "Bullets Over Broadway" with "Winter's Bone") "Whatever Works" is possibly Woody's truest-to-self since "Sleeper", but the film character Boris Yellnikoff isn't simply a Woody talk-alike. For one thing, he doesn't whine enough. For another, whatever you think, Boris is a nicer guy than Woody, a more empathetic cynic. Sure, he's a no-limits in-your-face cheap-shot put-down artist -- a New Yorker in short -- but he's also a soft touch. People who hate this film, of whom there are many, denounce Woody for imposing his own persona on the actor Larry David, who should have been allowed to write his own jokes. But those people are all 'fans' of Larry David, from some TV show I imagine, and I have the good luck never to have seen or heard of David before. Yes, there are moments in the film where Larry David captures Woody's affect perfectly, but he's 100% Boris Yelnikoff from start to finish. Hey, I know a guy like that! Some of my best friends are wise-whatevers.

Others who hate this film declare that they are offended by its derogatory stereotypes of Southerners and Christians. Yeah, so? Got something against reality? The transformation of the detestable Celestine mother and father into hip urbanites, effected merely by exposure to New York, is short of plausibility, no doubt. Yeah, so? "Stadtluft macht frei!" Got something against comedy? Besides, Melody Celestine, the sweet young runaway played by Evan Rachel Wood, remains faultlessly in type. The ensemble acting in this film is far tighter, in my estimation, than in either "Vicky Christina Barcelona" or "Midnight in Paris", Woody's more box-office successful recent films. In fact, I'd say the acting in this film is hecka good...

... and it's hecka funny. Even my wife, who adamantly denies Woody any absolution for his marriage to Soon-Yi Previn, guffawed at some of the humor. [Contrary to popular opinion, by the way, Soon-Yi Previn was NOT Woody Allen's adopted daughter and did not grow up in his paternal care. Not that it's any of my business ...] It's a comedy of contrasts and of clashes between insecurities. Boris, the old grump who blabs constantly about his genius, is every bit as insecure as the bubbly Melody. He's a failed genius, and he knows it. She's a failed beauty queen and knows it. Back to those who hate this film, who deride the idea that a naive but gorgeous young woman could swoon over a bald mentor with a limp ... Got news for you, folks! Ask any college professor, orchestra conductor, or pastor of a mega-church whether this infatuation is plausible.

And yes, it is a 'feel good' movie, a little on the preachy side. Yeah, so? Got something against happiness? The preachment -- that the job of Life is to make the best of it -- is a commedia dell'arte dramatization of the wisdom of Baruch Spinoza, that other yiddisher Kop of yesteryear.

I will rank this film in my top five Woody Allen films which include: Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, Interiors,
and Sleeper.
Laughed out loud for many of the segments and the script. Perfect cure on a rainy day.
Thank you Woody Allen !

No other writer/director is likely to make a film like this in this day and age of religious conservatism and social correctness. That's what makes Whatever Works work! See this if you are: a) a liberal; b)open-minded; c)a bit of an anarchist; d) a libertarian. If you are none of the above, but you really want something different in the way of an adult, well-written comedy, this is for you too. You won't be bored or disappointed. And 3 cheers for Larry David for a great performance!

t's always so reassuring to see the opening credits of a Woody Allen film. The screen is black, the credits come and go very neatly, a tune playing in the background, and then the movie begins. Whatever Work's begins this way, and as the final credit fades away, so begins the beautiful flow of dialogue that Allen has written for us, to entertain and to persuade us to think and laugh simultaneously. His follow up to Vicky Christina Barcelona, Whatever Works is about... well, the title says it all.

Seinfeld co-creator and Curb Your Enthusiasm creator/star Larry David plays Boris Yellnikoff, a nuclear physicist who claims to be a genius who was once almost nominated for a Nobel Prize. Boris is a grouchy old nihilist who, through his infinite knowledge, has decided that nothing in the world is really meaningful or important. He sees himself as surrounded by a bunch of "inchworms", and in his inspired opening monologue, he addresses us-the audience-informing us that he is not a likeable guy. He knows this, and does us what I'm sure he sees as a common courtesy.

Boris lives in an apartment in Chinatown, and spends his time either lecturing to a table of his companions at a local coffee shop, or reluctantly teaching chess to kids, whom he refers to as imbeciles and morons. One night, as he's walking home, he stumbles upon a young girl named Melody St. Anne Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood) begging for food, and hesitantly allows her into his home. His opinion of her initially fits in with his outlook on the world, but over time he grows fond of her, and she grows fond of him. As their relationship strangely becomes something more than seems logical or even possible, events take a bizarre and unpredictable turn that leads Boris to question his own perspective, bringing him to new revelations and to the philosophy: whatever works!

This attitude ends up being shared by nearly every character in the movie, including Melody's beauty-pageant-stage-mom, Marietta (Patricia Clarkson), and her adulterous, God-fearing father, John (Ed Begley Jr.), who both show up out of the clear blue sky, looking for their daughter who ran away from home. They are a southern family, but they may as well be aliens to Boris, and vice versa. Wonderful performances spiral around Larry David's brilliant work as the curmudgeon, Yellnikoff. His delivery of Allen's lines is pitch-perfect, something that I came into this film expecting. The two just seems to naturally click. Wood also does some of her most intriguing work as the naïve out-of-town girl who is drawn to Boris' strange ways almost at once.

The film could almost be done as a stage play, in that the scenes are fairly static, and involve many long monologues that play nicely against the dialogue that bounces between characters. There are many long streams of dialogue filmed without cutting away, which I like a lot. Allen does this frequently, and it allows the actors to talk and bicker with feeling and authenticity. My only issue with Whatever Works is that it is harmlessly illogical, and by the end, everything is too tidily settled and at ease. I like how Allen plays around with fate and happiness, but there are some bits and pieces in the final third of the movie that don't quite work. Having said that, I think Allen has a pretty decent comedy here, one that may not equal some of his other recent films, but-whatever works!

He's still pathetically obsessed with very young women. This was interesting and funny in his film Manhattan (and others) where the male character was witty and fun and had an attractive and interesting circle of friends. Woody Allen wasn't so very old and decrepit-looking back then, so one (me) can understand why a young intelligent (capable of choice) female would be in love with him despite an age disparity. Whatever Works, in contrast, comes across as pathetic and even dirty. Woody Allen's alter-ego is now just a boring, sarcastic old crank who walks around in the same old shorts (that look like boxer shorts), while the young female runaway teenager is a beautiful dumb blond who is inexplicitly in love with him! Being very young, beautiful and, most important, dumb is maybe an old guy's or pedophile's fantasy, suggesting that the teen can be induced to do anything. Well, whatever works.

I also found the following absurd: She shows up at his door penniless and in raggedy looking clothes, but the next day and each following day she is wearing another (after another) new-looking, very cute and fashionable outfit. Yet the old guy is still walking around in the same old shorts... and telling her (pretending) that he wants her to leave, after apparently buying her all those new clothes!

The unappealing male lead character is not Larry David's fault because he is just reading Woody Allen's lines and plays him perfectly. Larry David's Seinfeld writing is great, so hilarious or wonderful, and so are are most of Woody Allen's films, both the funny and serious ones.

Whatever Works, Anything Else, and Deconstructing Harry are the only Woody Allen movies that I dislike; I value and own a dvd of all his others, even the ones he didn't direct (Play It Again Sam and The Front).

I was very disappointed with this movie. I guess because Larry David was in it I expected constant humor and to be laughing during the whole thing. It was just plain awful. Ironically, the previews they showed before the movie came out was the only real funny part in the movie. It was just so bland and I kept waiting for something funny to happen. Well, it didn't. Not good. Why would Larry David do this and as he was doing it, why did he think it was funny? Maybe he had no control though so I will have to blame Woody Allen then. I'm usually a Woody Allen fan, but not for this movie. Sorry. Not very good.

I've enjoyed Woody Allen's movies in the past, and I've also enjoyed Larry David in "Curb Your Enthusiasm," but I quickly took a disliking to this movie and my impression hadn't improved by the end. For me, there's simply nothing good about the movie.

The plot is silly without being funny, the characters are flat and unbelievable, and Larry David's acting is weak. Sorry, attractive and kind-hearted young women don't go for nihilistic and caustically rude old men with no money and delusions of grandeur. And string theorists don't behave like the Boris character, their field isn't quantum mechanics (it's quantum gravity, which is a very different animal), and they don't have priveleged access to the "big picture" (string theory hasn't yet even been worked out theoretically, much less empirically corroborated).

More importantly, on a thematic level, all we really get is a shallow and caricatured version of existentialism, perhaps closer to Epicureanism. This notion that "life is obviously meaningless, so grab and give what little pleasures you can along the way" reflects a dogmatic, unimaginative, and pitifully hedonistic mind which has failed to grow and has apparently stopped searching. The only redeeming insight is that luck may play a larger role in our lives than most of us realize.

Summing up, I can't recommend this movie because it's neither deep nor entertaining. "Annoying" is closer to the mark.