After making movies in London and Barcelona, Woody Allen returns to his home turf for
Whatever Works. Thank goodness he's back in New York. His new movie, coming after a string of painful failures (add Oscar-winning
Vicky Christina Barcelona to that list), works.
I can't attribute Woody's current success to the city; I give credit instead to his script, an old one, it turns out. Allen first penned
Whatever Works more than 20 years ago with Zero Mostel in mind for the lead. Larry David, of
Curb Your Enthusiasm fame, plays lead Boris Yellnikoff, a suicidal, cynical genius who finds unexpected happiness in the arms of a much younger, less sophisticated runaway, Melody St. Ann Celestine, played by the always wonderful Evan Rachel Wood.
David's Boris is prone to long rants. Often they are addressed to the camera directly and therefore the audience. It's not enough to watch; you are complicit. Allen's narrative gambit actually works. It's surprisingly difficult not to like this crotchety guy with an unfortunate propensity to jump out of windows when life gets tough.
If you are going to have a homeless Southern gentile sleep in your apartment, you could not ask for anyone more appealing than fair Melody (Wood). The barely-out-of-her-teens former beauty queen wears her hair in pigtails. She is dumb and seemingly proud of it, but gamely spouts back Boris' intellectual witticisms. She can, it seems, get smarter, and over the course of the film, she does.
The cast of characters expands from there. Before long, Melody's parents track their AWOL daughter to the big city. Her mother Marietta (Patricia Clarkson) arrives first, a typical Southern matron, who after only a couple of days in Manhattan discovers her inner bohemian. Then comes Melodie's father (Ed Begley), the philandering, rifle bearing husband, who needs only one night in New York to discover his true identity. Boris also has friends of his own, a loyal crew of New York intellectuals, plus one doleful psychic (Jessica Hecht) who blithely interacts with the Southern eccentrics plopped into their world.
It's difficult to properly believe Allen's far-fetched fairytale, but that does not make the film less enjoyable. Nor does Whatever Works provoke big laughs; the film is nevertheless an enormously pleasant diversion.
Allen has created a tiny universe in which to tell Boris' story. This universe is populated with likable, interesting people, interested in making love and art, playing chess and wandering through flea markets -- people who make mistakes but are basically kind. "Whatever Works" is Boris Yellnikoff's personal motto. It works for him, for his rag-tag friends, and best of all, for the audience, too.
Whatever Works
Starring: Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley Jr, Michael McKean
Directed by: Woody Allen
Produced by: Vincent Maraval, Brahim Chioua, Jack Rollins
Running Time: 1 hr. 32 min.
Release Date: June 19th, 2009 (limited)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual situations including dialogue, brief nude images and thematic material.
Distributors:
Sony Pictures Classics
