DVD Review: "Whatever Works”

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Published: November 6, 2009

Woody Allen’s script for "Whatever Works” dates back to when Zero Mostel was alive. The bard of Upper West Side neuroses wrote this story about a surly codger taking in a desperate young hottie in the early ’70s and had Mostel in mind to play self-described genius Boris Yellnikoff. Under the threat of industry strikes, Allen dusted off the script and asked Larry David, the reining king of angry self-loathing, to play the boorish Boris. Alas, "Whatever Works” only serves as a historical oddity since this story supplies much of the DNA for Allen’s greatest films, "Annie Hall” and "Manhattan.”

Breaking the fourth wall, "Annie Hall”-style, Boris tells the story of how he had a panic attack, divorced his philandering wife and moved into a cold water flat. One evening, a dim young runaway named Melody St. Ann Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood) appears on his doorstep, begging for food. He takes her in despite Melody’s lack of intellectual rigor, and eventually her short skirts and halter tops wear Boris down and he marries her.

Then her strict Christian mother, Marietta (Patricia Clarkson), shows up from Mississippi, disapproves of the union and seeks to break up the odd couple. What transpires is a series of behavioral transformations, betrayals, stock plot devices and one of the most talented casts of any 2009 film operating at community theater level. David, who is usually brilliant at playing misanthropes, seems hemmed in by Allen’s lackluster script, which clearly was set aside for a reason, because "Whatever Works” simply does not work.

— George Lang