Whatever Works

Despite being one of the most well know people in North America, Larry David has had a minimal big screen presence. Hardly surprising though when you consider the acclaim and fortune he has amassed from both Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm over the years. However, David takes the leading role in Woody Allen’s latest film, Whatever Works, Allen’s return to his beloved New York after a number of years shooting in Europe. In the film David plays Boris Yellnikoff a misanthropic professor who believes himself to be more of a professor of life and gives his, usually negative, advice about everyone and everything to whoever is in earshot. This includes Melody (Evan Rachel Wood) a 21 year old runaway who appears on Boris’s doorstep. Reluctantly taking her in, the storyline that unfolds is then somewhat unbelievable, but at least it’s not predictable. Some critics have pointed out that David is merely playing Allen in the film. Well, duh! Allen’s been playing “himself” in films for years (or at least the accepted film version of himself) so it’s hardly a surprise that Yellnikoff bears a resemblance to Alvy Singer, Isacc et al. Allen has David break the fourth wall on a number of occasions during the film. Usually a risky exercise in films, but it compliments Boris’s perception of life well. He has to tell everyone his opinions, including somewhat riskily, even giving the cinema audience a dressing down at the start. The one major blocking point for this film is whether Boris can garner any sympathy with the audience at all. If you don’t care much for the main character you’re going to struggle. On this front the side characters in the film all get decent screen time and story arcs, which come at just the right times throughout the film as a nice break from Boris’s constant moaning. In fact some of Boris’s patronising of Melody becomes repetitive quite quickly and is scarcely credible towards the end of the film. The old gag concerning Allen is about people preferring to his “earlier funny films” and it’s interesting to note that Allen wrote some of this screenplay in the late 1970’s. Does that explain why a lot of one-liners find the mark? Whatever it is, though there’s no zingers here, there’s enough to get you laughing on a number of occasions, though the ending of the film does seem to contradict what Boris has been preaching for the previous 90mins.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
David is great. Rachel Wood is even better. This isn’t early Woody, but it’s definitely funny Woody. Rating: 7/10.