Whatever Works

Larry David is Boris Yelnikoff, a curmugeonly former physicist who whiles away his remaining years complaining while eating with his impossibly tolerant friends, complaining while drinking San Peligrino, and complaining while teaching chess to "inch-worm" middle-schoolers, until Evan Rachel Wood's Melodie St Anne Celestine, an innocent waifish runaway from Plaquemines County, Mississippi, arrives on his doorstep, asking for a place to sleep.

So begins a comedy of culture shock and clashing values, and probably the most useless film of the year. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Woody Allen fan -- that's the problem. There's nothing new here.



The script is a rewrite of a dusty draft sitting around since the seventies (and it shows, despite the occasional Obama reference), the story is a rehash of several old plotlines, and the characters we've all seen before. So, if you're into Allen, you've already seen the depressive panic attacks about the meaninglessness of life (Hannah and her Sisters), the sometimes jarring monologue narration style (Annie Hall's Alvie Singer), the mentor/lover relationship of an older man with a precocious young girl (Mariel Hemingway in Manhattan), and so on. And if you're not into Allen, I just named three far better ways of introducing yourself to his work.

Whatever Works still works, though, despite these obviating self-plaguarisms. Most of the jokes are well-timed, and Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley, Jr both deliver strong performances as the Celestine parents, both fish-out-of-water in the big city.

Larry David's Boris is, surprisingly, the weak point of the film. His genius is never established enough to warrant our toleration of his jaded cynicism, and David seems to struggle at times with Allen's dialogue, which somehow would have sounded more natural coming from the elder actor. And Henry Cavill as the British travelling minstrel (he sits in his houseboat all day and plays his flute, apparently) who woos the married Melodie comes off as a totally creepy stalker, rather than as the (intended?) sweet romantic.

Ultimately, the strength of the writing and the optimism of the refreshing, if rather heavy-handed, final message make up for the film's shortfalls, and leave Whatever Works an intelligent and funny summer comedy, which in turn left me jonesing to rewatch Michael Caine's brilliant performance in its superior sibling.