Larry David might be plugging a gap between Curb series, but Woody Allen can do much better.
For the expectedly mordant love child of two cantankerous Hollywood windbags, Whatever Works is a disappointingly slushy affair. Larry David plays a grouchy self-proclaimed genius named Boris, who vexes acquaintances with his misanthropy and breaks the fourth wall to offload onto literally anyone listening.
But a Mississippi runaway named Melody (Evan Rachel Wood) slops a sickly gloss of innocence and niceness all over Boris’ misery-sodden world when she turns up on his doorstep. While the pair’s chalk and cheese dynamic has its moments, a stream of misfit bit-parters and incongruous plot developments overcomplicate matters. David might be plugging a gap between Curb series, but Allen can do better.
Published 25 Jun 2010
Got a horrible feeling about this one...
Embarrassingly poor.
Make it stop!
Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone go back to school in this charmingly off-kilter comedy-thriller from Woody Allen.
A stunning career comeback from Mickey Rourke underpins Darren Aronofsky’s tragic sports drama.
Woody Allen follows up the biggest hit of his career with an exercise in smug mediocrity.