Whatever Works

by KYW's Bill Wine

"I'm not a likable guy and this is not a feel-good movie," the lead character in Whatever Works tells us early on.

Well, true and maybe not, respectively. Unless, of course, laughing makes you feel good.

Whatever you think of Woody Allen's on-screen persona or off-screen behavior, or his directorial ability and style over the years, the one genius-level talent that has remained on display -- as attested to by his amazing 15 Oscar nominations and two Oscars (for Annie Hall and Hannah and her Sisters) -- has been his inspired and prodigious screenwriting.

We're reminded of that in his latest comedy as a writer-director, Whatever Works, which has its missteps and limitations but rides on the rails of its uproarious script.

In his first starring role on the big screen, Larry David, the co-creator of TV's "Seinfeld," tries not to curb our enthusiasm in his Allen-alter-ego role of Boris Yellnikov, an arrogant, out-of-work Jewish physics professor who now lives in a Chinatown apartment and makes a modest living giving chess lessons to neighborhood children.

As our deeply pessimistic tour guide, he breaks the fourth wall and -- as is often his director's wont -- addresses us directly. And we're about the only people on hand he does not constantly insult.

One day, in a moment of uncharacteristic weakness and kindness, he takes in a hungry and homeless young woman from Mississippi named Melodie, played by Evan Rachel Wood, and immediately starts berating her about her lack of intelligence.

Despite their vast age difference and obvious religious difference, a May-December romantic relationship develops and they soon marry.

Not long after, her estranged mom (Patricia Clarkson) and dad (Ed Begley Jr.) -- having heard of the union -- turn up, separately, in New York City.

To say that the lives of these two repressed Christian conservatives radically change once they're exposed to the Big Apple lifestyle is to put it mildly.

And to say that the Pygmalion-like odd coupling of Melodie and Boris will also soon change is to state the inevitable.

Whatever Works seems a throwback in several senses.   First of all, it's often laugh-out-loud funny, which has not been Allen's mode of late. It also sounds (wordy) and even looks (staged) very much like a play.

We're back in New York City, which used to be Allen's exclusive province until his recent directorial forays to European cities. And there's the makings of a standup comic's monologue that seems sprinkled throughout the dialogue -- as was the case in Allen's earliest films.

It turns out that he actually wrote the first version of Whatever Works in the 1970s as a vehicle for Zero Mostel. But Mostel passed away soon therafter, so Allen put the script away and then recently updated and refashioned it for Larry David.

David, who had a small role in Allen's Radio Days in 1987, does well with Allen's misanthropic dialogue, and Wood and Clarkson also bring their characters to vivid, likable life.

But it's the kind of movie during which we listen carefully to, and bathe in, the cynically insightful dialogue, which rewards us even when we're not really buying the incidental plot or the reality of the characters and what we're watching them do.

And Allen, exploring the transformative power of love, even manages to finish on an upbeat note. Say what you will about the ending, but it's neither feel-bad nor unlikable.

So we'll script 3 stars out of 4 for Woody Allen's cannily caustic comedy, Whatever Works. It does, for one.