Whatever Works

I remember going to see my first Woody Allen movie in the theater with my mother. It was called "Bananas" and we laughed all the way through the film. The next year we went to see "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Sex" and laughed even harder during that film. The next year we found ourselves at "Sleeper" and we were crying from laughing so hard. It became a tradition from then on to go see every Woody Allen film that opened through the years. We stood in long lines to go see "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan". I was in high school and then college during those years and I was from the South. I was a polite, positive, happy Christian southern boy that ended up moving to New York and living for 12 years in Manhattan. I am now 58 and living in Florida. I have degenerative back issues, arthritis, low testosterone, mood swings, slight depression and suicidal thoughts which causes me to isolate myself from people in general, swollen ankles, bald, and have lost the hearing in my left ear which causes an imbalance to my walk. THAT SAID... "Whatever Works" hit home with me! I WAS the young Southern girl in the film...Happy, perky, positive...when I was younger and living in NY. Now I AM the older pessimistic man, no longer religious but a naturalist, complaining about how my life has ended up (especially the physical part), throwing around pearls of wisdom to any young person, advising them, warning them about how life will throw unexpected situations and disappointments their way. BUT, it is so comforting to know that Woody Allen films, all these many years later, STILL make me laugh!! Obviously I could relate to ALL the characters he has written for this film. I saw segments of my life throughout the movie and I was laughing out loud from beginning to end. I found "Whatever Works" to be one of his best later films. Absolutely hysterical...about life, relationships, people, our intellect, our stupidity, fate, destiny. I especially loved how the Southern, judgmental, bible obsessed, rigid, unhappy family members by the end of the film had become free spirits, uninhibited, creative, loving their new found sexual freedom. Finally letting go of what society had taught them to be and just being themselves for the first time in their lives...happy, laughing, accepting, loving people and life. "Whatever Works" made me laugh, tear up at times from the touching, bittersweet dialogue and to reflect on my own life. And let me tell you...Woody Allen touched a nerve with me with his insights and witty, satirical, poignant screenplay. One of my favorite films from Woody!!!

This is by far the worst Woody Allen movie ever made. I'm a big fan, but the same rambling existentialist crisis and angst, with Larry David as the surrogate is mind numbingly boring. Tedious film. DO NOT RENT OR BUY!

Great comedy while reiterating the pessimism and darkness of our human condition. Great movie!

This film skyrocketed to the top of my 'worst movies of all time list'. I could not believe how pretentious and cliche this film was. It mirrored Woody Allen's lust for inappropriately younger women in a hauntingly creepy way. He breaks the fourth wall which could have been creative if Allen hadn't created the most unlikeable characters ever. The film is more of a play than anything that should have ever been put into hard copy and the plot is set up so that suspension of reality is impossible.

Perfect.

If you don't get woody's humor nor the really dry-wit humor of David, dont watch it watch unless I leave your closed mind bs at the front door! This movie has great dry humor that's beyond simples minds confusion while the wiser laugh at their expense. Period. 5 star.

what is woody allens obsessions with old men hooking up with young girls??? uber creepy

Ever Heard Of Renting Apple if we can rent it outside why not here?

I personally did not like the movie at all. I found it to be very shallow and dry. Most of all it was just boring. Maybe, because I'm really not that much of a Woody Allen fan because I don't appreciate his dry humor and find the guy a bit weird. However, this film did not make any sense. I found some aspects to be a bit out of tune with where the story was going. The acting was not bad at all and I really am a big fan of Evan Rachel Wood. However, the characters were not very likeable and there wasn't any depth to them. Woody Allen is a good filmmaker, however I think that he gets way too much praise for his works as they aren't that great. I liked Match Point and Vicky Christina Barcelona. However, Whatever Works was a bit dry and lackluster.

It's always so reassuring to see the opening credits of a Woody Allen film. The screen is black, the credits come and go very neatly, a tune playing in the background, and then the movie begins. Whatever Work's begins this way, and as the final credit fades away, so begins the beautiful flow of dialogue that Allen has written for us, to entertain and to persuade us to think and laugh simultaneously. His follow up to Vicky Christina Barcelona, Whatever Works is about... well, the title says it all. Seinfeld co-creator and Curb Your Enthusiasm creator/star Larry David plays Boris Yellnikoff, a nuclear physicist who claims to be a genius who was once almost nominated for a Nobel Prize. Boris is a grouchy old nihilist who, through his infinite knowledge, has decided that nothing in the world is really meaningful or important. He sees himself as surrounded by a bunch of "inchworms", and in his inspired opening monologue, he addresses us-the audience-informing us that he is not a likeable guy. He knows this, and does us what I'm sure he sees as a common courtesy. Boris lives in an apartment in Chinatown, and spends his time either lecturing to a table of his companions at a local coffee shop, or reluctantly teaching chess to kids, whom he refers to as imbeciles and morons. One night, as he's walking home, he stumbles upon a young girl named Melody St. Anne Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood) begging for food, and hesitantly allows her into his home. His opinion of her initially fits in with his outlook on the world, but over time he grows fond of her, and she grows fond of him. As their relationship strangely becomes something more than seems logical or even possible, events take a bizarre and unpredictable turn that leads Boris to question his own perspective, bringing him to new revelations and to the philosophy: whatever works! This attitude ends up being shared by nearly every character in the movie, including Melody's beauty-pageant-stage-mom, Marietta (Patricia Clarkson), and her adulterous, God-fearing father, John (Ed Begley Jr.), who both show up out of the clear blue sky, looking for their daughter who ran away from home. They are a southern family, but they may as well be aliens to Boris, and vice versa. Wonderful performances spiral around Larry David's brilliant work as the curmudgeon, Yellnikoff. His delivery of Allen's lines is pitch-perfect, something that I came into this film expecting. The two just seems to naturally click. Wood also does some of her most intriguing work as the naïve out-of-town girl who is drawn to Boris' strange ways almost at once. The film could almost be done as a stage play, in that the scenes are fairly static, and involve many long monologues that play nicely against the dialogue that bounces between characters. There are many long streams of dialogue filmed without cutting away, which I like a lot. Allen does this frequently, and it allows the actors to talk and bicker with feeling and authenticity. My only issue with Whatever Works is that it is harmlessly illogical, and by the end, everything is too tidily settled and at ease. I like how Allen plays around with fate and happiness, but there are some bits and pieces in the final third of the movie that don't quite work. Having said that, I think Allen has a pretty decent comedy here, one that may not equal some of his other recent films, but-whatever works!