WHATEVER WORKS

Catching up on reviews of a few recent viewings...

Larry David and Woody Allen seems like a match made in heaven, but not it's not quite so in this familiar and imperfect embodiment of Allen's nihilistic comedy.  It's obvious that this is a personal film for Allen, that he began writing it in the 70's, and that there is a reason it wasn't made until now.  It feels like Allen was blowing the dust off an old half-finished concept, from which most of the central themes have been fully and perhaps better explored in his work since the script's inception, and casting David as his proxy.  But though Larry David's comedic sensibilities as an "actor" work perfectly in the wry comedy of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, his slightly scornful tone doesn't mesh well with the self-absorbed-but-simultaneously-deprecating humor of Allen, who was always able to instill a sense of charm that earned the audience's sympathy when he played himself.  Instead, Larry is just kind of rude and obnoxious, and we really only like him when we imaging Allen in his place.

Something is just slightly off kilter about the film's tone.  The camera-addressing monologues go on a bit long, and it's hard to tell exactly what our impression of Evan Rachel Wood's Mississippi hick character Melody (though the performance and she are lovely, the film's stance towards her is difficult to grasp).  There are plenty of things to love, however, such as Patricia Clarkson's journey from conservative mother to multi-partnered artist hippie.

Ultimately it's a shame that Allen never made the film when he could play the lead himself.  The film carries all of his philosophy and comedic sense in their rawest form, but won't be remembered as anything more than "minor Allen."  The film's main point (that universe is meaningless and cruel, and that the path to happiness is following "whatever works") is well taken, though, and the film could easily be seen as a treatise on exactly what Allen has been trying to say all these years. 

For an wonderful and insightful perspective on the film, check on NPR's Fresh Air interview with Woody Allen.