Whatever Works

Here's an obscure one I found and purchased just recently. The combination of Larry David and Woody Allen seemed like a match made in heaven. Sure enough, the main character, Boris (played by David), is extremely pessimistic, neurotic, and self-deprecating. He's a genius, but a tortured one who cannot stand that the nation and world at large are full of people less intelligent than he is. One day, a runaway from Mississippi (Evan Rachel Wood) shows up at his apartment begging for some food and a place to stay. Her Southern, Christian, naive outlook on life presents a polar opposite to the "woe is me, woe is the universe" attitude embodied by crotchety old Boris. Sure enough, opposites attract and the two are married shortly afterward. Throughout the movie, Boris frequently breaks the fourth wall and has monologues for the audience, staring right into the camera and even going as far as tot tell the other characters, "hang on, I need to talk to 'them' about something." The main thing Boris does to find happiness amid the meaninglessness of life and existence is, well, "whatever works" - that is to say, he does his best to get by on whatever small comforts he can find and encourages everyone else to do the same. Eventually, Evan Rachel Wood's parents show up looking for her and they too drop their Christianity-governed lifestyles in New York City with a little bit of help from Boris and their already "converted" daughter. The movie turns cyclical toward the end, as Evan Rachel Wood, who was initially so drawn to Boris, has become someone Boris is so proud and fond of, so that it is ultimately he who is left heartbroken and hurt when she breaks it off with him rather than the other way around. Of course, he's back in the saddle before too long, very much insisting - to the audience, as well as to himself - that life moves on and you've just got to keep doing whatever you can do that makes anything worth living through. It was a ninety minute movie and was pretty simple and straightforward. The laughs were there, and they weren't of a snobbishly high level or anything - just a nice fusion of Woody Allen's humor and Larry David's comedy. One negative I've got to point out is the production value. This thing felt very "straight to DVD" even though it wasn't; some of the acting was really, really bad. There was also a time or two when an actor noticeably flubbed a line, corrected himself, and moved right along like nothing happened. I mean, have some pride in your movie, Woody Allen - reshoot a simple scene if you need to! This movie was more or less what I expected it to be: nothing special, but a decent piece from a very specific niche (the Allen/David combo I spoke so fondly of). Fans of that sort of self-deprecating Jewish humor would do well to give this one a go, but I can't call it something everyone should see.