Whatever Works (2009)

Director:

Woody Allen

Writer (WGA):

Woody Allen (written by)

Release Date:

1 July 2009 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

Attempting to impress his ideologies on religion, relationships, and the randomness (and worthlessness) of existence...

Plot Keywords:

Religion | Runaway | House Boat | Chess | Bar

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Larry David	...	Boris Yellnikoff
Adam Brooks	...	Boris' Friend #1
Lyle Kanouse	...	Boris' Friend #2
Michael McKean	...	Joe - Boris' Friend #3
Clifford Lee Dickson	...	Boy on Street
Yolonda Ross	...	Boy's Mother
Carolyn McCormick	...	Jessica
Samantha Bee	...	Chess Mother
Conleth Hill	...	Leo Brockman
Marcia DeBonis	...	Lady at Chinese Restaurant
Evan Rachel Wood	...	Melodie St. Ann Celestine
John Gallagher Jr.	...	Perry
Willa Cuthrell-Tuttleman	...	Chess Girl
Nicole Patrick	...	Perry's Friend
Patricia Clarkson	...	Marietta

Also Known As:

Untitled Woody Allen Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual situations including dialogue, brief nude images and thematic material.

Runtime:

USA:92 min (Tribeca Film Festival)

Country:

USA | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (Mono)

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #44832) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba) | Sweden:Btl | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | France:U | Norway:A | Singapore:M18 | Hong Kong:IIB | Australia:M | Netherlands:6

Filming Locations:

Chinatown, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Sony Pictures Classics

Trivia:

The role of Boris Yellnikoff was original written for Zero Mostel. After Mostel's death in 1977, Woody Allen set the screenplay aside. However, with a potential actor's strike during 2008-9, Allen chose this old screenplay to be his next film.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene where Randy bumps into Melodie at the clothing store, she has pink nail polish. In the next scene at the boat, she does not.

Quotes:

Boris Yellnikoff: That's why I can't say enough times, whatever love you can get and give, whatever happiness you can filch or provide, every temporary measure of grace, whatever works.

Movie Connections:

Features Touch of Evil (1958)

Bleakly funny

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.