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markehed
Jul 17, 2009
Directed by Woody Allen
Written by Woody Allen
Starring Larry David, Carolyn McCormick, Evan Rachel Wood

The story here is that an old man (That looks, talks and probably smells like Woddy himself.) meets up with a young girl (We are talking barely legal here). They marry and things roll on from there. This theme of this movie is that the different characters all end up in strange relationships. To me it soon became clear that this movie is really about Woody's relationship with his ex-wife's daughter. It feels a bit like a defence for his action. Even if this is the case the movie is still drat entertaining. The characters are fun and interesting and the dialogue is witty as hell. That's what really carry the movie and keeps it it interesting.

4/5

markehed fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Jul 21, 2009

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go play outside Skyler
Nov 7, 2005


There's only one reason I wanted to watch this movie at first: Larry David. I didn't really care what the movie was about, I just needed more LD after seeing the season finale of Curb.

Larry David fans won't be disappointed: Whatever Works is full of his crazy antics, misanthropy and funny (yet meaningful) dialogue. All things considered, it was a decent movie with a good message. Photography-wise, it felt more like an episode of Curb than an actual movie, but I guess that's what Woody Allen was aiming for.

The story had me surprised every time, I seriously did not expect half the things that happened: this is a plus. I'm usually not into romantic comedy but this is an exception. It's not often you see movies breaking the fourth wall, and in this case it was really well done.

However, I feel that if it weren't for Larry David, this movie would lack "something" and I wouldn't have watched it all the way through.

3/5

Magic Hate Ball
May 6, 2007

ha ha ha!
you've already paid for this
Meh. Apparently the script is almost unchanged from one Allen wrote in the mid-70's, and it shows. The film just doesn't work. It takes forever to get going, the asides fall pretty flat, Larry David's character is too mean to be funny, the second half moves way too fast, the ending feels preachy, and overall it doesn't congeal. The funny thing is, though, if it had been made in the 70's with Zero Mostel as planned, it'd probably be terrific, because the script, even with its cultural updates, is still a product of the 70's. To directly film it like that was a mistake, because society has changed drastically. The issues with which it deals come up every day on soap operas, both daytime and prime time. Whatever Works offers nothing new and does it badly.

2/5

Lacermonia
May 15, 2002

Movie was a little long but still it was pretty funny. Larry David plays Woody Allen better than Woody Allen does. Even though the script is older than most of the main cast I still felt like it was relatively contemporary viagra joke. Not winning any oscars but its still a pretty solid movie.

4/5

Charles Van Doren
Dec 2, 2009
The most "Woody Allen" Woody Allen movie of the decade, and the best unless you're a fan of his recent dramas (personally, I think they're ponderous drivel). A cool, detached, low-key sort of comic experiment where a Nobel-Prize-winning physicist and devout New Yorker (Larry David) falls in love with a loopy twenty-year-old Southerner (Evan Rachel Wood). As expected, David's dour, secularist Weltanschauung clashes with Wood's warm, holistic approach to life. As unexpected, Wood converts wholeheartedly and almost immediately to David's worldview, becoming a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker in short order. Her mother (Patricia Clarkson) and father (Ed Begley Jr.) come to New York to bring her home and, improbably but entertainingly, lose their provincial prejudices just as soon as they arrive. Since David is clearly a mouthpiece for Allen, the story implies that Allen's completely lost the capacity for self-criticism that made him such a compelling storyteller in the '70s. But unlike other recent Woody Allen masturbatory fantasies, the combined wit and charm of Allen and the cast make this one worth watching. Larry David has said in interviews that he's not an actor, and it shows -- he basically plays himself -- but this happens to be the perfect strategy for the role of a funny rear end in a top hat. If you treat this as a long, non-canon Curb Your Enthusiasm episode with a very famous guest writer, it can't possibly disappoint you.

4/5

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