Whatever Works (2009) User Reviews

"I'm not a likable guy..."

[WriterDave · 7/10 · 29 June 2009]

Woody Allen's alter ego, Boris (a bitterly good and sardonic Larry David) makes this statement to the audience rather early on in "Whatever Works". The truth is, no matter how misanthropic, sarcastic and neurotic Woody Allen is, he ultimately is a pretty likable personality...if you like that type. Allen's return to Manhattan after three stays in London and a wonderful stop-over in Barcelona is yet another niche film. Fans of Allen, as well as fans of Larry David's "Seinfeld" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (which not so ironically should be the same folks) will find plenty to laugh at here, while others will inevitability whine, "I don't care for Woody Allen...and oh, that Larry David! Can't stand him!"

The plot of "Whatever Works" is irrelevant. Boris is some sort of genius-level physicist trying to speed his way to death, though those metaphors are never explored as poignantly as they should be. It all just serves as a soap-box for Allen (through David) to funnel his usual dialogues about relationships, love, luck and the meaning of life. It's all very broad and obvious this time around, but it's sometimes nice to still be laughing at the same old feel-good shtick. It should come as no surprise that Boris also tells the audience this isn't a movie designed to make you feel good, unless you're Allen fans, and then you'll feel pretty swell afterward. Leave it to Allen to infer moviegoers are inherently morons, but we're sophisticates for watching his films.

Apparently this is a re-worked screenplay from the 1970's and the "Annie Hall" style monologues to the audience are evidence of that. In the jokes department you'll find old standards mocking the French and suggesting kids should attend "concentration camps" for the summer mixed with modern humor about the Taliban and Viagra. There's also one hilarious throw-away/blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to James Cameron's "The Abyss" that makes you wonder if perhaps the screenplay was first reworked in the 1980's before its final incarnation here.

In the casting department we find Patricia Clarkson, yet again, is a delight in her curiously under-written over-written role (which is far too simply complex to explain in a traditional review) and continues to build a case for herself to be declared this generation's "Best Supporting Actress" twenty years from now. Evan Rachel Wood is cute-as a-button (oh, as her character might declare, what a cliché) as a Southern cutie-pie who runs away to New York City and meets up with the suicidal Boris. Allen, as always, is luminous with his photography of the "young lady." And unlike the similarly dumb motor-mouthed funny-voiced Mira Sorvino character from "Mighty Aphrodite", Wood's character is actually given an arc here and proves not to be as shallow and moronic as Boris originally assessed, which indicates maybe Allen is growing just a teeny bit in his view on women...or maybe not.

Ultimately this is yet another testament to Allen's world-view, which is summed up here as do whatever works for you to trick yourself into believing you're happy in this miserable world. Sure, there are times when Boris' diatribes run a few lines too long, or when the film stops dead when he is not on screen, but for the most part, this is Allen doing what works best for him. No other director can call himself out on all his personal pratfalls and annoying quirks yet still find a way to endear himself to the faithful who are ever patient with him and his films. No other director can be so charmingly mean-spirited and self-deprecating yet still find a way to declare his alter ego a genius at picture's end. And that's why we've always liked you, Woody, for better and for worse. For what it's worth, when it comes to Allen's better and worse, "Whatever Works" falls happily in between and works just fine, thank you very much.

Refreshingly original

[Craig_McPherson · 6/10 · 4 July 2009]

If ever a movie could be described as an allegorical rendition of a director's life, Whatever Works just might top the list.

Marking Woody Allen's return to his native New York City after a four picture hiatus in Europe, the movie tells the story of Boris Yellnikoff, played by Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm), the only actor working in Hollywood today who most closely approximates Allen himself in look, mannerisms, and philosophical outlook. Afflicted by numerous neuroses, Boris has become the ultimate pessimist, seeing life as one long water slide ride into an eventual cesspool. So bleak is his outlook that he becomes convinced that suicide is the only option, but even that cheap out fails him.

Fed up with the world, Boris turns his back on much that society has to offer, instead spending his days teaching chess to kids while publicly humiliating them at every opportunity. Yes, Boris isn't a happy camper, and takes pride in it. The fact that he's managed to maintain a core of four friends is a miracle in and of itself.

Then one day fate causes him to cross paths with Melodie St. Ann Celestine (played by the delightful Evan Rachel Wood), a country bumpkin runaway from the backwoods of Louisiana. She is Jethro Bodine to Yellnikoff's Einstein. A complete intellectual and generational opposite. Love at first sight it isn't, but given the axiom that opposites attract, Boris soon finds himself falling for the much younger siren (cue the Allen parallels).

While some critics have complained that much of the dialog comes across as stilted and unnatural (which it does), Whatever Works unravels more like a stage play than real life, which, I think, is how Allen meant it. As writer and director, he has lots to say here and refuses to allow such trivialities as natural delivery stand in the way. This isn't to say that the performances are wooden, but rather that nobody talks like Yelnikoff in real life, and I'm good with that. What's important here are the ideas, constructs and situations that Allen infuses in his characters.

Interestingly, while much of the movie's theme focuses on the serendipity of life, and thumbs its nose at the divine, the film can easily be viewed from both the atheistic and spiritual viewpoint, particularly given how events unfold in a seemingly manipulated manner.

While not Allen's finest work, Whatever Works will appeal to those who enjoy a light romantic comedy, particularly one that provokes a few sparks from our grey matter, while delivering its laughs.

Woody Allen back to what he does best

[grantss · 8/10 · 22 July 2015]

Woody Allen is back to doing what he is famous for - clever introspective comedy - and he still does it well. He detoured into making crime-dramas, three of them - Matchpoint, Scoop and Cassandra's Dream. All of these were good, and one, Matchpoint, was brilliant. Then he made a pretentious drama, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which wasn't good (but people seemed to like it just the same).

Whatever Works sees him back to comedy, and back to his beloved New York (the previous four were all set in Europe). With the setting comes the standard Woody Allen neuroses, paranoia, depression and general philosophical musings that have been a hallmark of his films. The surprise is, for once he doesn't play the neurotic, paranoid, depressed lead character. No, this time Woody Allen stays behind the camera, and Larry David, of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame, takes the part.

Larry David does a great job in the role. He was born to play the curmudgeon, and play the curmudgeon he does, to the limit. It can wear a bit thin at times, but mostly he is screamingly funny.

Supporting cast are great too. Evan Rachel Wood is convincing as the dumb innocent Southern belle, and Ed Begley jr and Patricia Clarkson are solid as her parents.

Plot is good. Maybe a bit underdeveloped - some things happen too quickly and some characters seem too flexible - and some things seem a bit trite, but it works in the end. The dialogue, however, is great. Almost as good as Allen in his heyday of the late-70s and 80s. Biting, caustic, clever.

A very funny movie.

It works for me.

[JohnDeSando · 4 July 2009]

"Sometimes a cliché is finally the best way to make one's point." Boris (Larry David)

Woody Allen's witty movies may seem clichéd (love does indeed conquer all in most of his romcoms), but they do make a humanistic point couched in Allen's pessimism and nerdiness. With Larry David playing another Allen alter ego, Boris, a self-proclaimed genius, this misanthrope in Whatever Works is the best characterization of Allen in his recent movies. The movie works for me as the smartest, most enjoyable of this summer with a message countering Allen and his alter ego's world-weariness.

It doesn't take long to look at David's work co-creating Seinfeld and starring in his own Curb Your Enthusiasm to see that this world-weary worry wart is a good choice to play an Allen-like New York Jewish intellectual. Unfortunately his lack of real acting talent is a hindrance, especially when he slips into shouting many of his lines. Yet when David plays himself more than the stuttering Allen, he becomes relaxed and believable. When David speaks to the audience several times, the sincerity is powerful.

Allen wanted Zero Mostel to play this part; his death in 1977 put the script in mothballs for decades. As an accomplished Broadway and film actor, Mostel underscores David's limited acting range.

The conceit of Whatever Works is that older Boris in his 60's hooks up with twenty-year-old Southern Melodie (Evan Rachel Wood) despite his genius mind rejecting the whole affair as trite but his heart going with "whatever works." Throughout, Allen juxtaposes the Southern innocence with Northern experience creating a situation where NYC actually transforms the Southerners into urban sybarites, no better exemplified than the transformation of Melodie's mom (Patricia Clarkson) from bible thumper to artist humper with avant garde photos and multiple lovers. Even her ex-husband, John (Ed Begley, Jr.), has a NYC epiphany of the sexual kind.

Although Allen has his characters looking for love with results that will remind you of his Everyone Says I Love You, the sweetness is replaced with a philosophy that encourages searching out whatever works because of the transitory nature of love and life.

The mixture of love and cynicism allows deep appreciation of irony and the transformative nature of experience.

Cynical, Witty and Hilarious Return to New York

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 18 October 2010]

In New York, the bitter and grumpy Professor of Quantum Mechanics in Columbia University Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David) is a snobbish and pretentious intellectual that claims to be a genius in String Theory and that the world is completely wrong. During an existential crisis, Boris ends his marriage with Jessica (Carolyn McCormick) and jumps through the window to commit suicide. However the canopy saves his life and Boris becomes limp and quits his job in Columbia. He moves to an old apartment downtown and gives chess classes to children to make some money. When the simpleminded religious Mississippi runaway Melodie Saint Ann Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood) asks for food to him, he temporarily lodges the girl in his apartment. Along the days, the atheist Boris shapes Melodie to his thoughts and the girl, impressed with his pretentious geniality, fits his world. Despite their difference of ages, they marry each other and have a routine life. However, the world of Boris changes when out of the blue Melodie's mother Marietta (Patricia Clarkson) arrives in their apartment.

"Whatever Works" is an ironic romantic comedy about how irrational things of the heart are. The lead character Boris Yellnikoff is annoying and maybe reflects the alter ego of Woody Allen in the present days. But the black humor is hilarious and does not disappoint the fans of this great director, with cynical and witty lines. The return of Woody Allen to New York is great and shows that he has not lost his shape. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Tudo Pode Dar Certo" ("Everything Can Work")

See this movie and then read the external reviews

[boydens · 9/10 · 10 July 2009]

I saw this movie in a packed cinema and the audience loved it to the extent that many applauded at the end. So I came home, looked it up in IMDb and read some of the review by professional film critics. What I found helps to explain why nobody reads papers anymore and why professional movie reviews are increasingly irrelevant. The critics drooled all over themselves for No Country for Old Man -- a ridiculous blood bath where the bad guy can see through walls, magically find people on the run, and kill repeatedly without raising much more that a mild interest from the local and state police. Yet many of these same critics think the characters in this new Woody Allen film aren't realistic. God save the film critics.

Back to the film. I can't remember the last time I laughed this hard at the movies, and I wasn't alone. It takes special talent to direct a movie that is so dependent on perfect comic timing to work, and the actors in this film hit their marks consistently. If there is character in this movie that shouldn't be the subject of study in an abnormal psychology class, I missed them.

If you care about intelligent movies for grown-ups, then you need to support movies like this one.

A trip back to vintage '70s Woody Allen that's almost convincing

[Movie_Muse_Reviews · 7/10 · 24 November 2009]

For those wondering what happened to the old Woody Allen, here he is. "Whatever Works" is a script from the 1970s. I noticed that without even knowing Allen has been forthright about it. A few script rewrites -- talk about the Taliban and not the Communists -- and old Woody works in a modern context. Then again, "Whatever Works" is not a film that anyone will herald the second coming of great Woody Allen comedy, but it is one that will win over a handful of audience members.

"Whatever Works" is pure vintage Woody. Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David) is a cynical, neurotic and suicidal man that Allen would've played himself in 1977 had he been old enough. He's an elitist intellectual jerk who loves classical music and literature and spews life philosophy. He is a Harvard grad physicist-turned-chess-teacher who considers himself a genius and everyone else a peon. He delivers an opening monologue. He and the characters in this film go to the movies, reference movies and attend art gallery showcases -- and it takes place in New York. This is the comfort food of Woody Allen movies.

If one considers the film's title a mantra, then Allen must've applied it in casting Larry David. David ... works. He's got only a few gears as an actor and we've seen plenty of his main gear on HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm." We get lots more of it here, only Boris spouts some of Woody's wittiest lines and insults of all time. It's great, but it comes with the price that Boris is a jerk and his thoughts about life -- we only grow closer to death, love is a waste of time, there's all this crap to worry about -- make him overbearing. It's to Allen's point, but it's difficult to listen to Boris at times.

In a twist of Allen's love for cosmic coincidence, Boris meets a 21-year-old runaway Southern girl named Melodie St. Anne Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood) who he takes in and via foot in the door, ends up letting stay. She's a completely naive and uneducated stereotype, the complete opposite of Boris and all Woody prototypes (with great purpose, however). Mistaking his crafty insults and fatalistic world view for great intelligence, Melodie develops a crush on him and Boris, with his "take what you can get/enjoy what you have" mentality, agrees to marry her. All manages to work until Melodie's mother (Patricia Clarkson) finds her in New York and her traditional views act as a major countering force to their relationship.

Allen's crafty little concoction about not being able to plan for life and love and all its overwhelming negatives that can pop up at any moment is nearly charming. Truthfully, it's a bit sophomoric for his capability level in terms of comedy. The Southern stereotyping, random sharp turn of events and his choice to break the fourth wall (in a film no less) might all be leading somewhere, but it's nothing you totally bite on. The situations are funny and interesting but not believable or sophisticated enough to convince you to start popping Allen's philosophy pills.

"Whatever Works" is neo-classical Woody Allen. It's like asking your mother to cook you something she always made when you were a kid only it's 40 years later and not all the same ingredients are present and she uses some different and not as sophisticated ones as a replacement. In other words not quite what it used to be, but it's still pleasantly palatable and it takes you back in a positive way.

~Steven C

Visit my site at http://moviemusereviews.blogspot.com

Woody has done it again

[carped · 10/10 · 5 July 2009]

The critics have missed on this one. Don't believe the negative reviews. It's the funniest one from Woody since maybe Deconstructing Harry. Everything works. From the very original script, combining Allen's bleak view of life with effervescent farcical plot line, to uniformly fine performances from Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, and the rest of the cast. Comedic sparks fly non-stop. Not just light chuckles here and there at Woody's witticisms, but loud all-out laughter. The scenes with Ed Begley's and Patricia Clarkson's transformations of 'classic text-book right-wing material' are especially hilarious. And in the end I came out from the theater, thinking that in a paradoxical way it was one of the most life-affirming pictures from the master.

Real Men of Genius

[ferguson-6 · 6/10 · 28 June 2009]

Greetings again from the darkness. Such an odd experience ... watching an old Woody Allen for the first time. Well that's the best way I can describe this. The script was from the 70's and certainly, Mr. Allen made a few changes to make it fit the 21st century, but still we can't help but think it's 1977 all over again ... especially since Woody has been away from NYC for awhile.

Larry David is cast in the "Woody Allen" role and does his best to bring his Curb Your Enthusiasm delivery. The only problem, his character here, Boris Yellnikoff, is just a very bitter, abusive, negative force ... so even some of the best comedic moments are a bit tainted by the mean spiritedness.

Evan Rachel Wood has been a star in the making since "Thirteen" and really brings a new dimension not just to her career, but also the film. Her runaway southern belle is a flat out hoot. When her parents (Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley, Jr.) arrive, we gain some insight into Allen's thought process ... he thinks NYC is the be all and end all ... and can even enlighten those southern "crackers".

Mr. Allen has always been obsessed with three topics ... dying, sex and intellect, and all three are on prominent display here. He really has an innate ability to exaggerate life subtleties and slap us upside the head in his films. I believe his message is that the big picture of life is overwhelming and disheartening, but as individuals, we can each find happiness.

Bleakly funny

[Gyran · 10/10 · 25 July 2009]

When Woody Allen's films are released in the UK I usually blink and miss them. I happened to be in France this week so I was able to catch Whatever Works which is having its first general release in that most Woody-friendly of countries.

In Whatever Works, Larry David plays Boris Yellnikoff, Woody Allen's most unsympathetic character yet. He is even bleaker than Harry Block in Deconstructing Harry, this is despite the fact that the screenplay was apparently written in 1977 during what some people refer to as Woody's funny period. Woody usually gets away with his portrayals of nihilistic characters because of his diffident manner. Larry David, on the other hand, plays what is recognizably an Allen character but in a very aggressive manner, direct to camera. I do sympathise with Allen's world view that life is meaningless, arbitrary, painful and followed by oblivion, but, even for a sceptic like me, David's delivery is a little too blunt. To make matters worse, he is an arrogant misanthrope who regards himself as a genius and everyone else as inch-worms and cretins. He even verbally and physically abuses the small children who he is supposed to be coaching in chess.

By chance, Boris shacks up with a naïve Mississipean runaway, Melodie, charmingly played by Evan Rachel Wood. In one of many implausible plot devices she just turns up on Boris's doorstep and he takes her in. Things start to look unpleasantly like an old man's fantasy with the 60-something Boris and the 20-something Melodie although, fortunately, Allen spares us the bedroom details. We are in familiar Allen territory here with an older man having a Svengali-like influence on a younger woman. Then, suddenly, in the film's best scene, Melodie shows that she has completely adapted Boris's attitudes and beliefs, expressing contempt for her young friends' optimism and cheerfulness.

Things improve greatly in the second half of the film as the action becomes more farcical. First Melodie's mother arrives on their doorstep, closely followed by her father. Both are rapidly seduced by New York life and renounce their Southern fundamentalism for exciting new lifestyles and sexual orientations. Melodie's mother, Marietta, mischievously played by Patricia Clarkson, becomes a famous photographer on the strength of some snaps she has taken with a cheap camera. The plotting is quite perfunctory here but it is so funny that the viewer is carried along with the fantasy. And, of course, it is a fantasy that the vast majority of Americans who believe in Heaven and Hell can just have Allen's doctrine of despair explained to them and reject their value systems instantly.

The film ends on a note of euphoria and one can see that the whole thing is a parable. All the characters seize their one bit of happiness, whatever works for them in a naughty world. I liked the way the mood of the film flips: it starts in despair but you leave the cinema with a broad smile and a warm glow.

A deceptively simple pessimistic comedy. Woody Allen identifies in the neuroses and personal issues related to the world the causes people more neurotic than they should be

[fernandoschiavi · 7/10 · 5 July 2023]

A former physicist dedicated to quantum mechanics and "almost nominated for a Nobel Prize", Boris (Larry David) is a deeply skeptical man who, dominated by hypochondria and pessimism, separated from his wife because he considered their marriage to be "too perfect". With no hope for the future of the human race ("They had to install automatic flushing in public toilets because people can't even be trusted to flush!"), he meets young Melody (the stunning Evan Rachel Wood) one night.), who, after running away from home, ends up moving in with the subject although he is unable to tell the difference between the words "protons" and "cretins". From there, Boris, even considering the girl an imbecile, ends up causing small transformations in his way of seeing the world in the best Pygmalion style - with the difference that, instead of becoming a "lady", Melody becomes.... well, on Woody Allen.

Arrogant and self-centered, Boris is presented to the viewer in a curious way by addressing the audience directly - and although breaking the fourth wall is not something new in Allen's filmography, it is employed in an organic and extremely efficient way in this feature: if it initially sounds just as a narrative sweetheart, it soon reveals itself as a manifestation of the protagonist's eccentricity (or schizophrenia?) and also of his self-professed genius, as he actually seems to see more than his peers. Furthermore, this is an interesting way of opening up expository narration, making it less artificial, which, of course, is a bonus from a structural point of view. Still, even though he emerges as a fitting Woody Allen alter ego, Larry David ends up sounding aggressive when the filmmaker would likely come across as sarcastic, which takes the audience a bit further away from the character (and his constantly high-pitched voice becomes tiresome). . As if that weren't enough, the idea of bringing him in with a limp might even add something curious to Boris if David didn't prove absolutely incapable of portraying his limp in a natural way.

Meanwhile, Evan Rachel Wood surprises as Melody, avoiding turning the girl into a caricature and giving an important innocence to her composition. With a name that may initially suggest the idea that the girl will bring joy (music, melody) to Boris' life, the character soon takes the opposite path, abandoning her optimistic and naive view of the world and absorbing - even if without understanding - completely - the existential crises of the partner, who, to complete, sees in the girl a fundamental characteristic: she admires him almost as much as he does himself. Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley Jr. Do predictably well in roles that, while minor, are key to establishing the film's main theme: the liberation of the human race.

Yes, release. Sadly, accustomed to an existence governed by dogmas (religious and social), conventions and prejudices, we often prohibit ourselves from living ideas, relationships and concepts that could serve not only as beautiful experiences, but also important steps towards self-discovery and personal growth. In this sense, the New York imagined by Allen in this film is established as an oasis in the middle of a desert of repression, as if the metropolis were, in all its dimensions, a constant Woodstock (except, of course, for the protagonist, who remains too focused on his suffering to experience that universe). And it is in this sense that the title in English makes perfect sense: always moving towards the end, we have too limited a time on this planet for us to still be trapped in the fantastical absurdities imagined by ancestors in search of influence and power - and, thus, we must enjoy whatever it is that makes us happy.

With a vintage script (the film would have Zero Mostel in the lead role, but was shelved after the actor's death in 1977), Woody Allen takes up the story of Pygmalion, this time revitalized with 21st century specifics and with quotes from recent history. Of the United States and the world, such as "the election of a black president" or the Taliban. Incidentally, historical quotes abound in this film. There are also references to ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Mayans and Aztecs. In addition to the "looser" narrative, but no less pessimistic than the European tetralogy, "Whatever Works" already brings explicit metalanguage in the opening sequences, a form that the director has not used in such magnitude since "The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)" - understand that the metalanguage of "Deconstructing Harry" or "Driving in the Dark" are of another character. Boris is the only character in the film who knows of the existence of an audience on the other side of the screen and tries unsuccessfully to show this to his friends. There are times when he addresses viewers to discuss plot elements, and with that, we already see a change in the formal attitude of the script.

Allen has already used the figure of the narrator a lot, which has always given a chronicle tone to his films. In "Whatever Works", this voice is not off, nor is it totally suggested by the montage, the soundtrack or the self-narrative story. Boris himself gives the tempo line. He is an agent and observer of the film's acts, which makes "Whatever Works" a work of great proximity to the spectator. In addition to this "omnipresence" that complicity attracts the audience, the film has one of the best executions of Woody Allen's timing, and the mise-en-scene is so communicative and so strong, that the ending could not be different: all the characters of the movie in a room, celebrating New Year's Eve. The narrative breaks (five in all) strongly mark each block. Allen does not allow the story to cross the threshold of deceleration. When the sequence runs out of steam, a break in the script's structure takes place.

If the attack in this film is on the institutions, especially on the "straightforward and rigid" family, the driving force of the work is the particularity of each member of this bureaucratic wheel and their change when in contact with a reality that shows them "the light". The theme is generalized with the entry of more characters, namely Melody's parents. First is Marietta (Patricia Clarkson), who goes from a devoutly religious and repressed housewife to an avant-garde artist who believes in free love. Then it's her father's turn, John (Ed Begley Jr.), who, from a traditional husband, for whom the male stab in marriage is natural, starts to assume a homosexuality never guessed before. Although conducted anecdotally, these stories of transformation are a hilarious way to expand on that "whatever works" philosophy that screams that, as long as we find some form of happiness, we should grab it, because nothing greater than that exists. This is the final conclusion of Boris, who, assuming the preaching character of the entire film, insists on addressing us in one of the several times that a Woody Allen character breaks the fourth wall. The protagonist's neurosis, cynicism, lack of faith and verbiage (Larry David screams at us at every moment, in a constant tone), associated with the intellectual conversations of the other characters, the praise of the New York lifestyle, the simplification of the female role, the stereotypical liberal-conservative contrast, the example of sex in the definition of relationships, the jokes that seem to be taken from Groucho Marx, and the constant references to his Jewish upbringing, make the film, for many, an exaggerated agglutination of the usual themes of the old persona Woody Allen film.

As you know, after writing the script, nothing is as personal in Woody Allen's films as the soundtrack. In this film, particularly, he chose and used music very broadly: jazz from the 1920s and 1940s (the typical musical world of his films); Beethoven's 9th and 5th Symphonies, rock, pop, bossa nova and excerpts from a Fred Astaire musical. In addition to this broad musical universe, art direction and locations deserve a closer look. It can be seen that the interior of Boris' house is relatively devoid of things, while the suburb where he lives (which comprises a Chinatown) is crammed with signs, colors, stalls, objects. In this case, Harris Savides' photography accompanied the mischaracterization of the interiors, always photographed in weak, dark tones, with a predominance of cold colors and ironically punctuated by external lights of contrasting colors - see the scene in which Boris arrives from his friends' house and there is green and yellow light shining through the window. He moves to the right and the camera follows him in a medium shot, then, in the second window, a very strong red-light shine. The same thing is repeated in the final scene: the contrast of the many lights of Fifth Avenue in the middle of New Year, to a living room almost completely brown, although elements of other colors (the Chinese lamps) adorn the room. It is not necessary to identify a contrast between the interior and exterior of man through the internal and external works.

"Whatever Works" is a deceptively simple pessimistic comedy. Its critical content is practically a universe of its own. Woody Allen identifies in the neuroses and personal issues related to the world the causes of the bad functioning of the family, which generates dissatisfaction, bad parents, bad marriages, false believers, disoriented children, people more neurotic than they should be. In the end, disbelief in humanity is patent. Pseudo-happy, the ending of the film lights the flame of good possibilities, but removes all hope of durability from these moments. Even paradoxical, the message is clear and bittersweet: although it is never forever, happiness must be enjoyed, felt and shared while it lasts. Everything can work. But it won't stay that way forever. This is not the movie that will make you like Woody Allen or Larry David, but those who are already fans of both will certainly have fun.

It works

[ryancm · 9/10 · 29 November 2009]

This is Woody Allen's best film in years. Hard to believe some people didn't like it. Mr. Allen is in top form here and it would have been great seeing Allen play Allen, although Larry David is good. The real stars of the movie are Evan Rachel Wood and the great, wonderful, terrific Patricia Clarkson. She is one of our greatest living character actress's working today and hope to see her in many more films. She adds class and perfection to everything she does.

The story could have been quite discomforting with a young girl and man old enough to be her almost grandfather. But somehow it works as we are not witness to anything inappropriate, not even a kiss. Even though David plays an unsympathetic role (and nobody actually talks like that), he's still fun. The evolution of the Evan Rachel Wood character is wonderful.

There are a couple of neat twists at the end and it all ties together for a very happy ending. See this for Woody at his best.

a criticism to religious taboos

[osmangokturk · 7/10 · 7 January 2017]

Boris is a kind of the central figure in the movie. He touches everybody and change their life and make them happy, his life changes as well.

It's kind of that Boris a supernatural, he knows the meaning of life and knows everything as he know that this is a movie and some people are out there watching them. It should not be surprising that he is depicted as a genius physicist. That would understand the universe and abolish the religion.

In the movie, while some's life change to a more untraditional and deviated sexual life, some's go in the "right" direction. Deep religious mother enters into a life of 2 husbands and a wife living together and father enters into a gay relation, whereas the daughter moves from marrying a very old man to a similar age boy friend.

So what Woody Allen would want to tell us? Life is unhappy, but after some unexpected coincidences people find their matches ? Reason leads to the wrong matches while the chance produces happy relations? Both premises are broken by the case of Melody. Initially Melody seems to go via the chance and later continue with by match of reason and plan. But one can say Melody and her boy friend were the only young couple, other being elders. Anyway we can't conclude any outcome on these.

We can't say that Woody tries to favor perverted relations, because what Boris and Melody finally do is quite acceptable to the society and conventional .

I may say the movie is a harsh critic to religious dogmas and taboos and it highlights the the fact that chance could create a happy lives.

At least it has a well organized down to earth story and playing is amazing.

Whatever... It Just Doesn't Work...

[A_Minor_Blip · 1/10 · 31 October 2009]

A hotdog consists of rejected parts of a pig all thrown together and picked up off the butcher's floor. This is Woody Allen's hotdog. Many of the elements are borrowed from past films, like his fourth-wall-breaking first-person-narrating philosophy of life being meaningless and love being luck and everyone is dying and... all that stuff that was once entertaining when Woody Allen was younger, and funny.

His patented neurotic-Intellectual character is given to Larry David as a chess-instructing codger who marries a gorgeous twenty-one year old, Evan Rachel Wood. This entire concept is funnier than any line in the movie; not ha-ha but "Am I actually supposed to buy this" funny.

There are plenty of one-liners but nothing seems to matter: the characters all frolic stupidly before David so he can put them down. His monotone delivery of Allen's penned tirades are limp and lifeless (David even admits he's not an actor, so I guess he's not to blame).

Christians are seen as robots and everyone not from Manhattan are merely seeking their true selves as anti-Christian "heathens". Woody seems to be finished bagging on what and who he knows (New York and New York intellectuals); his sights are now set on those he never knew but thoroughly despises (anyone who hunts, fishes, or prays).

There are a few good moments of acting, like when Evan Rachel Wood's mother, played by Patricia Clarkson, is discussing photography - for an instant the dialog seems not written but actually spoken by a real human being; you know, like Woody's older films - the ones about people, not stereotypes.

Allen is becoming just like those he's against: close-minded and completely bias. And he's pushing the same envelope that's already been mailed.

We got it already, Woody. You can move on now.

Another really good one from Woody

[tonytu-1 · 28 June 2009]

Well, my first review for the IMDb. I picked one that I thought I was not going to like, but I like Woody Allen, so I gave it a shot.

I thought I would not like Whatever Works, because I read and heard some of the critics' negative reviews.

So, the first ten to fifteen minutes or so into the movie, I'm thinking that Larry David is better at improvising, as on his own show, than doing someone else's lines, albeit Woody Allen's.

But then, as usually is the case with Mr. Allen;s movies, I got hooked half way through. I got hooked because it was very well done. The story, the direction, the acting - yes, Larry David was perfect for this. It was a risky casting move on Mr. Allen's part, but it worked beautifully.

I like it also because Mr. Allen interjects philosophy in all of his movies. He courageously exposes himself, allows us to hear his thoughts and does these things by seducing us with entertainment.

Excellent work.

The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the sort of "tying up" philosophy about how we should go with whatever works. Such a happy ending. Why?

That said, id didn't interfere with my overall appreciation of the movie.

Woody plus Larry "...is match made in heaven... by a retarded angel." :)

[Galina_movie_fan · 7/10 · 15 November 2009]

Woody Allen is back to New York City and he celebrates his return with a new romantic comedy Allen-style dedicated to his favorite place of earth and its ability to change drastically the lives of those who come from all over to Big Apple attracted by the lamp of Statue of Liberty that she lift for "tired, poor, and yearning to breathe free..."

The movie is short, just 90 minutes, and the second half is fast, entertaining, and very funny. It introduces two characters, divorced couple, conservative Christian Southerns from Mississippi who came to New York in search of their runaway daughter and found out something about themselves and whatever worked for them to turn their lives around, to deal with their issues, and in the end to make Allen's little comedy a really feel good movie. Patricia Clarkson whom I like in every role I've seen her gave another wonderful performance as Marietta. John (Ed Begley, Jr.), Marietta's estranged husband, provided some funniest moments in the film. As good as Clarkson and Begley are, they play the second fiddle to Larry David's misanthropic, eccentric, sarcastic, neurotic, and by his own words unlikable genius Boris Elnikov who against his best judgment enters impossible romance with a 21 years old naive sweet southern runaway belle named Melody St. Anne Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood). At times, it was creepy - how well David played Allen-like character yet never lost his own personality. I believe that Woody Allen is the best actor to play himself in the movies he directs but Larry David came very close. David's delivery of some lines is hilarious and made me laugh out loud with delight. I have to admit that the first half of the film is a bit over-talkative, static, and with the constant breaking the forth and involving the audiences by direct talking to them, it feels more like a stage play than a movie. Well, I like the movie anyway, and whatever Woody does - works for me. But I am his long time fan and I love his movies even before I see them. I truly believe that even minor Woody is worth watching and Whatever Works is not an exception. If anything, the movie gives us an unique chance to see two of the very best masters of laughs working together. It is not the first movie for Allen and David. David played the small roles in New York Stories (1989) and Radio Days (1987) but after seeing Whatever Works, I'd add that Woody plus Larry "...is match made in heaven... by a retarded angel." Whatever works may not belong to the best Allen's pictures, and it is not in the same league as the last year's Vicky Christina Barcelona but it is much better than an average Hollywood comedy that has been released during this year.

Mr. Allen, now I am ready to meet a Tall Dark Stanger in London sometime next year, hopefully sooner than later.

7.5/10

Totally agree... vintage Woody Allen

[jackster12 · 8/10 · 24 October 2009]

First, just so you know, I'm writing this review from France... but I'm from the U.S. That, so you don't disregard this as yet another Franco-Allen fan (they've exchanged their Jerry Lewis passion for Woody over here, and sanction everything he does).

Also, disclaimer: I really like and respect Woody Allen's work and I'm also an ex New Yorker. With a Jewish wife, no less. So no, okay, I'm not unbiased.

All that said... I fully agree with "boyden" in that this movie is far better than the reviews it gets from critics. On rottentomatoes.com, for instance, this garnered a 45% rating. That's on par with non-hits like "Gigli" etc.

Yet, the dialogue was great... Larry David was as close to a Woody Allen substitute as anyone has come in a long time (Allen always casts people he can direct to sound like him, it seems)... and it made me crave that old New York, before the money of the recent pre-bust boom turned it into a homogenized has-been of a city.

Evan Rachel Wood, by the way, was overwhelmingly charming. And I thought all the other acting was excellent too, in the way people act in Woody Allen movies... which is ALWAYS different from what it is in other films (you occasionally get those moments where the lines are crafted or improvised rather than somewhere in the middle).

At any rate, it's amazing the size of the disconnect between fan response and the response of the critics... who, in my opinion, should go watch Annie Hall and Sleeper and the like so they can remember again.

for fans of Larry David

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 7 December 2015]

If you like Larry David from "Curb Your Enthusiasm," you'll love this 2009 film from Woody Allen, "Whatever Works," starring David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, and Ed Begley Jr.

David, as usual, plays an impossible human being, Boris, who "almost was nominated" for either the Pulitzer or Nobel Prize, I can't remember which, a self-described genius who sees nothing but gloom and doom wherever he turns. He sees the world going to hell in a handbasket, and after he finishes describing it, you will, too, if you don't already. I admit it's looking pretty bad.

Then he meets Melody, a young runaway southern girl who moves in on him - first she wants food, then, being homeless, she needs a place to stay. Boris winds up marrying her.

When her mother (Patricia Clarkson) arrives, she is appalled by the way Boris lives (in a dump) and his advanced age. She immediately sets out to find someone else for Melody. While looking, she also finds herself and becomes an artistic photographer who sleeps with every man she meets. Then Melody's father (Begley) arrives, and I'll stop there.

The acting is terrific, with Evan Rachel Wood turning in a wonderful performance as an upbeat, sweet southern gal who is fascinated by Boris even if she doesn't always get what he's saying. Begley is a riot, and Clarkson has a different kind of role for her, less serious but no less intense.

Someone on this board said Woody Allen is obsessed with death, sex, and intellect. Whoever said that left out May-December relationships, at which he seems to be an expert. I have no idea whether anything printed about him at the time Blue Jasmine came out is true but there's no denying his interest in the under-25 crowd.

This is talky movie with a lot of humor, and we don't have David doing a Woody impression. Rather, he talks more like himself, and some of the dialogue is a riot.

And like all of Woody's films, there's a theme. In Match Point, it was luck; In Crimes and Misdemeanors, life goes on after mortal sin, and here it's if you have a chance at happiness, take it. Do whatever works. I liked it.

The Bolder Allen

[Hussam_H · 10/10 · 7 June 2010]

The themes are the usual ones. But the attitude has gotten worse! Larry David plays the character that Allen would usually play himself, but this times the character is more certain, more contempt and with a larger ego.

It is not usual for a Woody Allen movie to upset anyone, but this one really might! The certainty is irritating. "God is gay!"- the usual sarcastic "probably" is absent.

It looks like, as Allen revisits his signature social comedy, the last installment of which was Deconstructing Harry, he has become bolder, franker, and labels whatever thought he passes as wisdom or knowledge.

This time, Allen doesn't allow his main character to struggle with his philosophy. Instead, every thing goes smoothly until the happy end. Unlike the alienated Alvy Singer for example, Boris is like a prophet.. every man he meets gets "saved," and at the end he's surrounded by many people with a big smile on his face.

It is wonderful to see a man whose work and mentality I extremely admire grows to be more in peace with his ideas.

I liked it, but don't really know why!

[runamokprods · 7/10 · 12 July 2010]

It sounds strange to say, especially since I'm a Woody Allen fan, but I'm not exactly sure why I liked this film. The acting is a mixed bag at best. Allen retreads a lot of old material, sometimes painfully. The film can be absurdly condescending to 'average people'.

But somehow, between my eye rolls, I quite enjoyed myself. Especially looking back. While watching it I kept being hit by the faults and flaws. But the next morning I remembered it with a smile. Go figure. I'i™ll probably re-visit it one day and wonder what I was thinking. It got mostly mostly poor and fair reviews, but a friends sheepishly admitted they liked it too, so... I gingerly recommend it, with only the request you don't come hunt me down if you hate it.

Clarification of their lives from BOTH Woody Allen and Larry David

[alicecbr · 10/10 · 22 June 2010]

Amazing the news that passing time brings up: This story of a brilliant Nobel Prize (almost) winner reminds us now of another Nobel Prize winner on ecology, Pres. Gore (rightly). Instead of this movie being just about Woody's rationalization for marrying his young step-daughter who must indeed have idolized his brilliant ideas....it is ALSO about the Nobel prize winner's attraction for Larry David's ex-wife. This is his attempt to explain to us HIS take on why those break-ups happened.

The young obviously smitten: they have at least one thing in common. She worships him, and he worships him. What better basis for a marriage.

My favorite part of the entire movie was the continual playing of "If I Could Be With You". So much so that I bought the complete recordings of Bobby Hackett playing his cornet with Jackie Gleason's orchestra to Richard Jones' lush sexy arrangement. I never heard of him, but he's great. The soundtrack for the movie actually cost more than this DVD.

What is it about Larry David's walk. Was he injured at some time? That wasn't him crashing through the windows so it must have been something else like polio that caused that swerving, almost drunken gait. He also does it in Curb Your Enthusiasm", so it's natural.

Hilarious movie. I don't really buy the mother falling into the menage a trois thing with her super religious background, but whatever. It's a comedy. Real life wouldn't even had David let the girl into his apartment, too afraid of pedophile arrests.

Unspectacular comedy, with some good lines and funny moments.

[secondtake · 7/10 · 23 December 2012]

Whatever Works (2009)

Forget for a minute if possible that this is a Woody Allen movie. Pretend it's a Larry David movie, which it is. For now. He dominates. He dominates in that oppressive loud singleminded obnoxious way, complaining and putting people down.

Good. Now cast him against the opposite, played by Evan Rachel Wood. A charming quaint naive gentle girl becoming a woman. He's unattractive, she is not. He's old, she is not. He's a genius, she is--well, she thinks she isn't, and he certainly thinks she isn't.

And that's where some of the funniness kicks in. Not just the ongoing tirades of David but with the strange conflict of these two types, as characters. Or characters as types. When other characters are added to this it's a relief in a way, but we still depend on the two of them for the main axis that the others intersect. So her mother arrives and becomes outrageously transformed. And her father, later, the same. Hilariously. And then David meets the woman of his dreams and you see that Wood's role was partly to soften him up for a slightly different outlook on things.

Because it's a Larry David movie.

So what about Woody Allen? Well, it's nice at first that we don't see David trying to be Allen, which has happened in other Allen movies where he's not the leading man. And some of the existential jokes about the empty universe and so on are totally Woody Allen thoughts yet they work in David's delivery, too. What you miss eventually is Allen's nuances, or at least I did. You might be glad not to have his whiney kvetching, but at least there was a variety to the moods and the kinds of responses he had to situations. David is for more homogenous, and I got a little grated and bored by him. Luckily, just in time, other things happened and all was well.

The ensemble interactions, with people sleeping with other people and the New York world being kind of incestuous and free-floating, should be familiar to anyone since "Annie Hall," or at least since "Hannah and Her Sisters." It is almost a parody of itself here, though, with funny lines that are a bit obvious and with an exaggeration that is simply excess rather than twisting into something surreal or magical. Or just staying within normal bounds of hilarious regular life. It's almost like this is Allen's Bunuel period, which might extent to "Midnight in Paris" as well.

There are few clunkers in Allen's history but this isn't one them. It's also not a great masterpiece, either, which Allen also has made. Keep a tempered expectation and it'll be a lot of unsurprising fun. And Wood is absolutely terrific.

Anything You Would Ever Hope From Either of the Two Comic Masters.

[jzappa · 8/10 · 19 September 2009]

There is something to Woody Allen's method of working that, as ironic as it may seem to his general appearance, outdoes most other great filmmakers working right now. Every year since 1967, he has come out with at least one film. He had no idea what end of the camera had the lens when he started. By now, he has come across such a wide array of different genres, themes, casting and setting staples and classical influences that, with a career that has had unequivocal consistency, he gives us precisely what even the most remote Woody Allen observer would expect from him, but with such an intensely enriched mark of mastered skills as both a writer and a director and the age that has been spent mastering them. It is a simply, classically structured story about an old Jewish man that can't stand being so much smarter than everybody else. And so he is.

He casts Larry David in what Woody Allen himself would probably deny is the Woody Allen role, but he couldn't deny that it has all the accoutrements that embody the persona he's made almost inimitably his. But David is the star here, in a role originally for Zero Mostel, but despite everything is inimitably himself as well nonetheless. He has the extra bite and carping dysfunctionality that is more his shtick that Allen's. The two apt collaborators easily remain flexible with each other. David plays Boris Yellnikoff, a misanthropic intellectual who teaches chess to children and abuses them when they don't make the moves that he finds obvious. He is nonetheless a highly knowledgeable man. Whatever your opinion may be of his political and social commentary, we're not given a choice whether or not to think highly of his intelligence when he shows the other characters in the opening scene that they are in a movie, and they stagger in discovery of this and quiver in denial. To onlookers, however, he just looks insane, and that is the key to his crabby cynicism. But despite all his knowledge and wisdom, in the end there is only one deducement he can make of all the chaos: To be sort of happy in life you have to do what you want, not what other people tell you to do.

It's as sheer as that, as we see when what are to him broad cultural fast-sketches enter his purposely lonely life after a divorce and an attempted suicide, and the plots strands unravel for the duds of the American South to find their true selves unfettered by their stubborn traditional mores in the unadulterated liberalizing melting pot of New York City. Evan Rachel Wood is the overtly ironic love interest for Boris, who is truly and utterly disgusted by her, and no matter what hilariously unkind names he call her, she does not simply act as if he is performing his stand-up routine to the wall like many other lesser vehicles for comedians, but gives a real performance by reacting in the innocently confused way that Boris is baffled to find endearing. The true cartoons are Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley, Jr., who effortlessly play their characters without missing a beat in the swift about-faces they undergo from the minute they're on screen.

This film is not just the collaboration of two talents with a lot in common culturally. It is anything you would ever hope from either of them. Larry David is a clever and funny persona under his own life-sucks farcical writing, but that very broad and free-to-roam character is sharpened and distilled under Woody's veteran instinct, which is as sagacious as ever because although his work has been particularly strong recently, this is not another attempt at something new to his range as most of the filmography from Match Point on have been. This is what he began doing and always has kept as his staple: a broad screwball sex comedy with an interwoven intellectual urge and a familiar intimacy with New York. And he's given himself extra room to be unapologetically sociopolitical, and brutally honest about his ideologies, viewpoints on sex and love between people of drastically different ages and generally the overall deeply imprinted signature of a Jewish agnostic New Yorker who has lived a long time, stayed busy and never stopped pondering.

Being an Allen's, the quality is there

[zagab · 7/10 · 17 May 2010]

You may prefer Allen's dramas over his comedies but if it's an Allen's and is a comedy, the quality is there. I left the theater with a good feeling, all relaxed. Then I realized I could not tell to others what the theme of the film was. What a dumb I am! Obviously the theme of the film is ... is ... I can only presume that, from time to time, Allen endorses this need to let the audience not take him too seriously. Which, by the way, I believe it was his main goal. Other comedies of his might lead the spectator to think about some relevant theme, because of their acidness, but this one just flows by. I was unable to give it an applause, nor criticize it. At last, this was pure entertainment, though a good one! Just what the doctor recommended.

This is, without question, one of the most self indulgent grating movies ever made

[dnlmonaco · 1/10 · 18 July 2017]

As a former New Yorker myself with some understanding of the culture of the City and State from where I hail, I feel I can give an unbiased and honest assessment of Woody Allen's ten billionth love letter to the Big Apple.

And that assessment can be summed up as *fart noise*.

Seriously though, this movie is a god awful exercise in navel gazing and seems to exist for no other reason than to confirm every terrible thing anyone ever said about the East Coast.

Larry David plays a thinly veiled Woody Allen stand in who immediately finds love and sex with a woman forty years younger than him while constantly whining about his life in a way that makes both his character and everyone else's character seem unlikable. David's character in any other movie would seem like an anti-Semitic dog whistle if not for the fact that Allen is himself a walking, talking Jewish stereotype so the most I can say is that the film probably isn't a hate crime against the Jews.

The running plot of the film is thin and annoying but it can be summed up as an insult to both New Yorkers and to Mid-westerners at the same time. New Yorkers should be scandalized by Allen's assessment of their day to day lives as nothing more than a series of hippie/hipster/radical liberal stereotypes who gaze into their navels so hard that it gives them eye problems. While I'm sure there's some truth to these thinly veiled stereotypes, their use in this manner seems to surpass satire and become a grating affront.

Meanwhile, Allen's assessment of people from Flyover states seems to swing between infuriating to disgusting as he assesses these poor, unwashed ignoramuses as both repressed Luddites and easily seduced bumpkins that will abandon all of their closely held beliefs and relationships at the mere mention of the siren song of New York's shopping and baby boomer three ways (seriously, that's literally how one character decides to move to New York permanently). At times, you wonder if Woody Allen has ever met anyone from west of Staten Island or north of Yonkers.

Also Allen's normally tight direction seems to have sat this movie out as he seems incapable of getting a decent performance from normally talented actors like Evan Rachel Wood or Patricia Clarkson. In fact I feel sorry for Wood since this entire film seems like one long creepy love letter to young flesh as glimpsed by an elderly horn dog. Henry Cavill shows up to be his usual, boring slab of meat self because even Woody Allen can't summon up the self delusion needed to believe Evan Rachel Wood's character would remain with Larry David's character.

Generally the whole film seems designed to get a quick pay check and to allow some of Allen's few remaining fans to leave the nursing home for a few hours.

It's just a really bad movie, frankly.