Thursday, June 18, 2009
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The title of Woody Allen’s new comedy, “Whatever Works,” might define what the filmmaker has been up to the last few years.
Allen churns out a movie a year like clockwork, some OK, some mediocre, none very memorable. Last year’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” drew solid audiences and won Penelope Cruz an Academy Award.
But the movie was emblematic of his output of late — slight plots, slighter characters, lackadaisical storytelling that recycles enough of the neuroses-fueled charm of his earlier films to keep the Woody Allen machine in business.
In other words, whatever works, emphasis on the word “whatever,” delivered with a shrug.
“Whatever Works” upholds that uninspired standard, Allen returning to New York City after four films in Europe and falling back on familiar themes he examined more thoughtfully decades ago.
With Larry David as Allen’s ranting, curmudgeonly stand-in, “Whatever Works” manages the funniest stream of one-line zingers the filmmaker has offered in a long while. It’s a lazy story, though, told lazily, starting with the casting of David himself. With their lovably grouchy and cynical demeanors, Allen and David — co-creator of “Seinfeld” and star of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” — certainly are kindred spirits.
David gets the laughs with his raving turn as misanthrope Boris Yellnikoff, a suicidal retired physicist who never met a person with whom he couldn’t find extreme fault. David never quite captures the melancholy underlying Boris’ bluster.
Allen also has David’s Boris spouting long-winded monologues right into the camera. A small dose of these self-conscious ramblings might have worked, but here they turn into awkward speeches for the unworthiness of humanity.
David’s contrived performance is matched by the contrivances of Allen’s story as a circle of kooks come into Boris’ orbit. First comes Evan Rachel Wood as naive, big-hearted Southern runaway Melody, whom Boris rescues off the streets. Despite Boris’ savage put-downs, Melody falls for her benefactor.
Allen says he wrote the screenplay in the 1970s with Zero Mostel in mind to play Boris. That certainly would have been a richer performance. So, whatever.