Review of Whatever Works (2009) by Jordan W — 07 Mar 2010

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!