A film review by Craig J. Koban November 2, 2009 |
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WHATEVER WORKS
Boris Yellnikoff: Larry
David / Melody: Evan
Rachel Wood / Marietta: Patricia
Clarkson / John: Ed
Begley Jr. / Joe: Michael McKean / Randy James: Henry Cavill / Perry:
John
Gallagher Jr. / Helena: Jessica Hecht / Jessica: Carolyn McCormick / Howard:
Christopher Evan Welch |
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Just
how familiar? Well,
here is a film about an old, deeply neurotic, fiercely independent, and
hyper idiosyncratic and smart Jewish know-it-all that manages to let his
curmudgeonly guard down when he falls for a far younger,
limitlessly spunky, and unattainably attractive girl.
While this Semitic bohemian initially finds that his self-concocted
bubble of
intellectual privilege apart
from the world is threatened by the presence of this ideal woman, he
nonetheless finds himself drawn closer to her.
On a similar foot, the light-hearted and bumbling floozy with a
heart of gold also finds it difficult to not be won over by the man’s
misanthropic charm and humanity-hating charisma.
Oh, and the man in question, like so many Allen creations of
yesteryear, often breaks the cinematic fourth wall, looks directly into
the audience, and engages in hostile and self-loathing diatribes
about how he is an academic and logical god walking among idiotic,
philistine insects. So…yeah…that
familiar. WHATEVER
WORKS has one irreproachable saving grace: Allen, now in his mid-70’s,
has opted to stay out of this Manhattan-centric dramedy as the main
protagonist (how utterly implausible would his presence in films like this
be now where he once again successfully courts a girl out of his league?)
and instead finds a new actor/surrogate in Larry David, who just may be
the perfect embodiment of the Allen of old.
A decade Allen’s junior, but just as rancorously obstinate and
miserable in his comic delivery, David has been collecting accolades
lately for his virtuosos comic performance on HBO’s CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM
where he plays…well…himself…and it is the actor’s unrelenting deadpan
delivery and chronically defensive posturing that makes him ideal to fill
the shoes of the prototypical Allen protagonist.
Both Allen and David also seems to operate within the same artistic
mindset:
both use New York as a semi-hermetic backdrop – and source, it seems –
of all of their frustrations, and both seem to lean towards the same
philosophical ideologies. I
guess if the thought of Allen appearing yet again playing the type of role
that made him an icon in American cinema is a pill too hard to swallow
today, then David seems like the most obvious replacement.
The blending of the two seems like a recipe for easy success.
The
film opens brilliantly: Boris Yellnikoff (David) is
a retired nuclear physicist that was almost nominated for a Nobel Prize
for quantum mechanics, which he wears with a prima dona badge of selfish
honor. Despite his 200-plus IQ, Boris is by no means a perfect man:
he allowed himself to divorce a woman that was his intellectual and social
equal, but for some reason he became so emotionally suffocate within the
relationship that he tried to commit suicide.
He now resides near Chinatown in a fairly crummy and ramshackle
apartment where he spends most of his time teaching chess to children (but
with the hilarious verbal aggression of a prison guard) and he spends ever
more of his time lecturing down to all of his friends.
Whoops. I almost forgot about the opening sequence.
We see Boris engage in lengthy arguments with his buddies when he
suddenly acknowledges us – the movie audience – much to the shock and
confusion of his friends (they see nothing).
Boris gets up from his table, walks right up to the camera, and in
a self-congratulatory monologue of stoic narcissism, he pontificates
on his own misunderstood genius and how he is burdened to live in a world
surrounded by simpletons and “submental cretins.”
Boris is infatuated with himself, but despises everyone else.
To him, the idiots that he unavoidably finds himself in contact
with everyday inconvenience him. After
relinquishing his angry rant, Boris nonchalantly informs the audience that
this film will not be a happy-go-lucky romp and that he, as the main
character, is the furthest thing from a nice, decent guy.
In short, his monologue is a warning to viewers: he’s a jerk and
he knows it and there’s nothing that can be done to change that. Yes…but…within
Allen’s recognizable film universe there is an obligatory spark that
will enter Boris’ life and irrecoverably change it.
Into Boris’ Alvy Singer-esque bubble of moral outrage and despair
enters an angel of sorts in the form of Melody St. Ann Celestine (an
never-more-beautiful and lively Evan Rachel Wood, in a refreshingly
feisty and jovial performance coming off of her somber, but great, turn in THE
WRESTLER). Melody is
an absolute beacon of positive energy in the grumpy Jew’s life: she deflects
all sorts of negativity that has entered her life – including her own
lifestyle as a bum living in the streets – and, even when she fails at
finding words to describe her sentiments (she’s a bit of an air head,
but not obnoxiously so), this former Dixie queen’s youthful verve and
infectious buoyancy seems like the best cure for Boris’ toxic lifestyle.
Despite
the 40-year age gap between the pair – and the fact that she is
incredibly attractive and just slightly above jailbait age – Boris
reluctantly agrees to let her in to stay with him for a while.
Although he never fails to take an opportunity – whether directly
in front of her or to his friends – to describe just how annoying and
stupid she is to him, Boris cannot deny the fact that he is becoming more
drawn to her and she to him. Unavoidably,
the pair eventually marry and begin to live a very peculiar marriage
existence, but their happiness is thrown off balance with the arrival of
Melody’s semi-estranged and superlatively religious mother, Marietta (a
wonderful Patricia Clarkson) and later her father, John (Ed Begley Jr.), who is
having his own…shall we say…identity crisis. Begley Jr. is also
a part of the film's single most uproarious dialgue exchange, which occurs
during a moment in a bar where he argues with a gay man. "God
is not gay. He created everything in the earth and heavens, "
to which the other patron wryly responds, "Yeah, he was a
decorator.".
I
would not think to spoil what happens next, but one surprising element of
WHATEVER IT TAKES is with the trajectory of Clarkson’s
character, who goes from a one-dimensional,
caricature of a Christian-zealot mother and then abruptly changes to a completely reaffirmed persona
once she has let the lifestyle of New York get a hold of her.
Even though she completely re-establishes her entire image the
longer she stays in the city, she nevertheless still tries to find ways to
sabotage her daughter’s relationship with a man that she thinks is
beneath ideal for him. There
is a subplot involving her trying to manipulate a young and handsome
suitor (played rather blandly by Henry Cavill) to intervene on Melody’s
behalf to save her from Boris, which feels substantially more artificial
and manufactured than it should. However,
Clarkson is a comic firecracker here, showing a hilarious resilience when
it comes to going to any length to rescue her daughter from what she
thinks is a polluted and corrupt marriage. Of
course, then there are also David and Wood, who develop such an ethereal
and unstrained chemistry in the film, despite their vast age and
personality differences. I liked how Boris, a livelong miserable SOB and misogynist,
is so insidiously nasty to Melody so often that the hilarity of the film
often resides with how she – a free spirit of boundless, giddy energy
and toddler-like enthusiasm – just casually brushes it off.
She is hollow-minded and innocuous enough to be blinded by the
greatness of the man, adhering to just about everything he says, which is
arguably why Boris becomes easily attached to her.
Their relationship, though, does not grow into a stale repetition
of TV sitcom clichés: look at one late moment in the film where the pair have a
heart-to-heart and painfully frank discussion about why their relationship
is, under most circumstances, doomed for failure from the beginning. However enriching the performances and amusingly scathing some of the dialogue exchanges are (I would still rather listen to Allen borrow and rip off himself by having his character’s speak colorfully and articulately than slum through mundane and perfunctory dialogue exchanges that dominate modern films), there is no denying that WHATEVER IT WORKS stumbles its way through material that Allen perfected in the decades past. The overall ending of the film (which is far too neat and tidy for its own good) – as well as the film’s irksomely rosy message that “in order to be happy, do whatever works” seems disingenuous to the unreceptive nature of some of the characters. Yet, Allen is clearly an auteur that is far removed from his prime (his last great film was 1996’s EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU, and his landmark and cherished classics like ANNIE HALL, MANHATTAN, CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, and HANNA AND HER SISTERS feel like there have become even more distant than before. Still, WHATEVER WORKS occupies a middle spectrum for Allen; it is neither indicative of his finest efforts (few from now on shall achieve such glory), nor is it representative of his weakest labors. Like his previous film, VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA, WHATEVER IT WORKS emerges as a highly agreeable diversion that will leave fans of both Allen and David in a state of giddy bliss. Even if the material seems horribly antiquated (the script was originally written in the 1970’s for Zero Mostel), sometimes whatever past glory that Allen reaches back for works. |
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