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RATING:   
Woody's back in New York and he's gotten grumpier! Yay! After gallivanting across London and Barcelona in his past four films, not to mention dabbling in opera, the Big Apple's favourite neurotic Jewish film-maker returns to do what he's become famous for. And that's to philosophise about sex, relationships and your very existence on the big screen - by way of verbal diarrhoea.
This time, however, Allen takes the form of Larry David, Seinfeld co-creator and star of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, who plays a limping, irascible physics genius-turned-chess teacher Boris Yelnikoff.
In an even odder couple than the old man and chubby boy scout in Up, Boris finds himself living with Melodie (Evan Rachel Wood), an impressionable Southern belle who earnestly tries to appreciate Beethoven while grappling with concepts like entropy. Eventually, they're joined by Melodie's ultra-conservative mother (Patricia Clarkson) who does not like the idea of their May-December affair.
While this M18 film has none of that jaunty, upbeat feel that made last year's Vicky Cristina Barcelona a rollicking good time, Whatever Works, well, works because it reminds us of his older films (mainly because it was written back in the '70s).
But it's also a Woody film of the present. Hidden underneath those sarcastic one-liners that David so superbly dishes out are words of wisdom from someone expunged of idealism and takes life in stride (it's called Whatever Works, right?), which neatly resolves itself at the end like a pretty, if somewhat mismatched, giftbox for the movie-goer.
It's not Annie Hall, but it's a good introduction to Woody for the 20-something set.
- TODAY/yb
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