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A review: Whatever Works
(12A ) 1 hr 32 mins Starring: Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson Directed by: Woody Allen At the Ritz 23 – 29 July
Opinion on Woody Allen's output in the last decade and a half has veered from veneration to disappointment through to outright despair.
The truth as I see it – as someone who used to be quite fond of the ground Woody walked on – is that Allen hasn't made a truly great film since Bullets over Broadway in 1994.
I don't think his career has gone down the pan as some detractors declare but neither have I believed in the various commentators who keep announcing a "return to form".
However, after all those false dawns, Allen really has returned to form here.
Ok, it's not in the classic mould of Annie Hall or Manhattan but it's pertinent that the script was written around the time those movies were made and I'm prepared to believe that the reason Allen kept it in a draw was because he was waiting for Zero Mostel to come in and play the vital central role and that subsequent projects took precedence.
Some cloth-eared critics clearly weary of Woody share the opinion that the script should have stayed where it was, a bewildering point of view given that Allen's sharpness of wit in the 70s is palpably in evidence.
He is also back in Manhattan (following his jaunts in England and Spain) and his central character is almost a Woody clone – a grouchy misanthrope who views the universe as "this cruel, dog-eat-dog, pointless black chaos". Think the crabby old git in Pixar's Up to the power of ten.
Even more Allenesque is the plotline whereby this curmudgeon gives food and shelter to a runaway who happens to be a cute, young Southern belle.
Before you can say Crimes and Misdemeanours, she falls in love with him. As one critic pointed out: "This is not a comedy scenario; it's a criminal offence."
Other critics have lambasted the credibility of this set-up but Allen is clearly intent on just having fun (it's been a long time) epitomised by our protagonist Boris speaking directly to the camera while his pals look on in utter bemusement as if they're not in on the joke that it's only a movie – and a farcical one at that.
Boris even refers to us, the audience, as "Neanderthals" and tells us he's not a likeable guy, yet Larry David (from Stateside TV's Curb your Enthusiasm) is, for all his caustic and pessimistic outbursts, an absolute hoot. You may even warm to the windbag.
You'll certainly find Evan Rachel Wood's Melodie endearing as the ditzy girl with a heart, and the film shifts up a gear in amusement and absurdity when Melodie's prim Mississippi mom (Patricia Clarkson) turns up intent on taking her daughter home only to find herself turning into an arty bohemian New Yorker.
At one point Boris informs us "this is not the feel-good movie of the year". It's Allen irony, of course. I not only felt good at the end but also felt better about Woody Allen's ability, at 73, to deliver something memorable.
There was a time when every Allen picture used to be an event. I'm not sure we'll ever return to those days but Whatever Works largely does work and if Allen can produce similar comic gusto, it would feel good to confirm a more lasting return to form.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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