Review of Deconstructing Harry (1997) by Dave A — 10 Aug 2008
Easily one of Woody Allen's best films of the last few decades, Deconstructing Harry tells the tale of Harry Block, a self absorbed sex obsessed writer with writers block. The film has a chopped up narrative structure full of flashbacks - in some ways reminiscent of Annie Hall, interspersed with fantasy sequences illustrating episodes from the writings of Block, and also some scenes where characters from his books enter "reality".
All of which sounds both messy and pretentious, yet this is a hugely likable film full of dark humour, and the whole structure of the film allows Allen to simultaneously explore his "serious relationship" style of film making with humourous episodic fantasy elements reminscent of his films of the 70s.
The self congratulatory penulitimate scene is a bit nauseating but other than that an excellent film... (The running joke about being out of focus more than compensates for the naffness of this scene anyway.
).
This review of Deconstructing Harry (1997) was written by Dave A on 10 Aug 2008.
Deconstructing Harry has generally received positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
