Day 191: Whatever Works

81o4Izgs4mL._SL1500_Whatever Works doesn’t.

Not on any level.

Larry David (playing the anhedonic Woody Allen character this time around) is terrific casting – if you want a douche bag as a protagonist.

Here’s how the movie starts: A bunch of friends sitting around in New York talking. Boris is insulting them. Mercilessly.

After a few minutes, Boris starts talking to the audience, calling them (us) mouth breathers.

He gets up and walks away from his friends, still talking to the camera (“breaking the fourth wall”). He says:

Why would you want to hear my story? Do we know each other? Do we like each other? Let me tell you right off, ok… I’m not a likeable guy. Charm has never been a priority with me. And just so you know, this is not the feel-good movie of the year. So if you’re one of those idiots who needs to feel good, go get yourself a foot massage.

And there you have it. That sets the tone of the movie. He tells us from the get-go he’s not a likeable character. The movie proves that. Repeatedly.

He even warns us mouth breathers up front:

Boris: What the hell does it all mean any how? Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nothing comes to anything.

Boris is right.

This isn’t the feel-good movie of the year.

And this movie, essentially, means nothing. It is pretentious (even by Woody Allen standards), acerbic, and unsatisfying.

Plus, like Manhattan, Whatever Works is about an older man who falls for and and marries a much younger girl.

Much younger.

Larry David, in real life, was 62. His love interest in the film (Evan Rachel Wood), in real life, was 22.

Larry David (1947- )… Boris Yellnikoff
Adam Brooks … Boris’ Friend
Lyle Kanouse … Boris’ Friend
Michael McKean … Boris’ Friend
Evan Rachel Wood … Melody
Patricia Clarkson … Marietta

Relationships, love, lust, infidelity…it’s all here.

At the end of the movie, on New Year’s Eve, Boris again breaks the fourth wall and says to the audience:

I happen to hate New Year’s celebrations. Everybody desperate to have fun. Trying to celebrate in some pathetic little way. Celebrate what? A step closer to the grave? That’s why I can’t say enough times, whatever love you can get and give, whatever happiness you can filch or provide, every temporary measure of grace, whatever works. And don’t kid yourself. Because its by no means up to your own human ingenuity. A bigger part of your existence is luck, than you’d like to admit. Christ, you know the odds of your father’s one sperm from the billions, finding the single egg that made you. Don’t think about it, you’ll have a panic attack.

Not much about Whatever Works is likeable. And this movie certainly isn’t enjoyable.

Woody Allen was 74 when this film was released. It was his 40th movie as director.

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