Review of Deconstructing Harry (1997) by Danielle S — 21 Mar 2009

Burt: "Do you care even about the holocaust, or do you think it never happened?

Harry Block: Not only do I know that we lost 6 million, but the scary thing is that records are made to be broken.".

Harry Block is a very cynical and jaded New York writer who has had a long and well received career as a writer of novels, many based on lightly veiled versions of his own life. Harry is going downhill fast, having alienated almost everyone he knows, by airing their dirty laundry in his books. Now he's a pill popping alcoholic, who has run out of things to say. He pretty much spends his time seeing his shrink, drinking, taking various prescription medications, and hanging out with hookers. Woody Allen is not the most ready figure that comes to mind when you think of prominent directors of fantastic cinema. The good news about Deconstructing Harry is that it is Woody Allen back on form and even returning somewhat to the heyday of still unsurpassed masterpiece Annie Hall to wind the old Allen neuroses into a kind of grandly existential self-inquisitorial on-screen psychodrama.