Woody’s world: life, relationships and nihilism
WOODY Allen has been making movies for nearly 60 years now, with more than 40 feature films to his credit - the last 35 or so coming at the remarkable rate of around one film per year.
FILM REVIEW: WHATEVER WORKS
REVIEWED BY ADAM KAMIEN
WOODY Allen has been making movies for nearly 60 years now, with more than 40 feature films to his credit – the last 35 or so coming at the remarkable rate of around one film per year.
He has tackled screwball romps, dramas, romantic comedies, thrillers and satire in that time, but no matter the genre, the evergreen genius always maintains that love is fleeting, romance is for dolts and chance is the only absolute.
Whatever Works is Allen’s latest and is dripping with his trademark nihilism.
At 76, Allen seems to be revelling in his standing as a pre-eminent resigned cynic, and parts of Whatever Works feel almost instructional – as though he is trying to reveal the secrets that are the benefit of his experience – peculiar, given he wrote it more than 30 years ago.
In a brilliant, if inevitable, casting move, Allen summoned Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm creator Larry David to play the lead role.
Fans and pundits held their collective breath to see the result of this seemingly perfect comedy storm, so it’s no real surprise that Whatever Works is ever so slightly disappointing. While it does work for the most part, it’s hard not to feel as though a trick has been missed, especially when you consider the pool of talent involved.
David plays Boris Yelnakov, a misanthropic New York Jew, who “almost won a Nobel Prize for physics” and once tried to kill himself on realising his marriage to a brilliant intellectual was failing.
He teaches chess to “inch-worms”, lives alone in a run-down apartment, suffers anxiety attacks and talks to the camera, much to the bemusement of people around him.
He is comfortable being miserable and alone until he runs into Melodie, a beautiful, bubble-headed runaway from the Deep South played by Jewish actress Evan Rachel Wood (The Wrestler, The Upside of Anger).
After a period of wedded bliss, Boris is uncharacteristically happy, but entropy soon takes hold and the pair’s relationship begins its natural and inevitable slide.
Melodie’s estranged mother, and later her cheating father, lob on Boris’ doorstep after tracking their daughter to Boris’ apartment. They turn up as God-fearing Christians but soon fall under New York’s thrall.
Melodie’s sassy mum ends up discovering her inner artist and living in a menage-a-trois with two men, while her straight-edged dad finds true love and liberation with another man.
Whatever Works really gets going when Melodie’s parents turn up and the hi-jinx ensue, but it does take a little too long to get there.
Once it’s cranking though, there are some vintage Allen moments. David is predictably perfect in the Woody Allen role and Wood is likable as Melodie, but if you want to see an Allen movie about a doomed relationship between an old cynic and a young, naive girl, Manhattan (1979) or Mighty Aphrodite (1995) are still the benchmarks.
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