Whatever Works

Whatever Works certainly worked for me. The latest Woody Allen film resembles a two-act play grounded in farce. Allen originally wrote the script for Zero Mostel in the 70s (Mostel died in '77, Allen worked with Mostel in The Front, released in 76'). Funny thing about Allen, more than a generation ago a Woodman movie was a guaranteed ticket for a date movie. While movie-goers have certainly changed their perspective over the years Allen keeps churning out movie after movie, some classic but all dealing, dramatically but mostly comically, with the foibles of romance and love.
Whatever Works is vintage Allen. The cast includes a misanthrope, a naive ingenue and her religious zealot parents. Throw in a couple of boho artists and break the fourth wall instantly as Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David) introduces himself and his negative view of humanity directly to the audience. Yellnikoff's monologue resembles a PG-13 version of the hate filled soliloquy that Ed Norton delivered in The 25th Hour.
Yellnikoff (he doesn't yell his continual insults so much as hurl them) finds shivering waif Melodie St. Ann Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood) cowering on the sidewalk near his New York City apartment. Against his better judgement he lets her stay. After a while her mother (Patricia Clarkson) arrives but is she there to rescue her daughter from the heathen clutches of big city morality or to adopt those vices (and virtues) herself?
Much of the movie takes place in Yellnikoff's spartan apartment or seated in bars and coffee shops. The laugh rate while not off the board is pretty consistent. Even though Yellnikoff, he taught string theory at Columbia, lives in a world devoid of faith the merger of coincidence and fate conspire to prove him wrong. Whatever Works shows Allen running full steam. Few of his contemporaries are as prolific and none are funnier.