Tonnerre de Brest: Whatever Works by Woody Allen (2009).

November 15, 2009

Whatever Works by Woody Allen (2009).

[via rockenberg]

A new movie by Woody Allen (not the last one, because there is more to come really soon) that comes back to the seventies. In fact this movie was wrote thirty years ago, when Allen thought of Zero Mostel as the main roll, but this renown actor passed away before the script was finished, so Allen kept the story under lock and key.

Now this movie is refreshing. Going back to such a nice epoch is like fresh air from the past. I’m not sure if I enjoyed that much the movie. To me it has many weak points that made me reconsider my first opinion, that was not very positive, and though about Whatever Works as an interesting movie in the likes of Manhattan or Annie Hall (well, a lesser “brother” I must say).

Boris Yellnikoff is a new version of the Woody Allen of the seventies, with his hypochondria, but also with a misanthropic point of view that was rounded with an absolute lack of humility. The funny thing is that I like him from the very moment he starts talking directly to the audience. Then I get the tone this movie was all about. I relaxed and enjoyed.

Melody is exaggeratedly young for this modern Mr. Scrooge and her parents are so obvious that you accept them because of Boris. That’s the power of the character. And Larry David, the actor that incarnates Boris, is so natural that sometimes it is hardly a distance between the man and the creature.

Hypochondria is quite irritating in a man so convinced of his own qualities that could consider himself the new incarnation of Newton and Einstein all together. Perhaps it worked for Allen, but not for me.

Putting aside this considerations, Whatever Works is a nice addenda to the Allen Canon, not one of his bad movies and a fun to see comedy. And it is a short one.

Whatever Works – Trailer

Woody Allen returns to New York with an offbeat comedy about a crotchety misanthrope (Larry David) and a naïve, impressionable young runaway from the south (Evan Rachel Wood). When her uptight parents, (Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley, Jr.) arrive to rescue her, they are quickly drawn into wildly unexpected romantic entanglements. Everyone discovers that finding love is just a combination of lucky chance and appreciating the value of WHATEVER WORKS.
[via HopscotchFilmsEnt]