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Whatever Works

Started by Icehaven, July 12, 2010, 12:45:30 AM

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Icehaven

I know what to expect from Woody Allen films but this still annoyed me, maybe because it was so by numbers, and the ending was awful. And Apart from anything else,
Spoiler alert
if I'd had such hugely fortunate coincidences happen in my life (find an extremely hot homeless teenager who'll worship and marry you, then attempt suicide and land on a beautiful older woman who's perfect for you) I'd at least question notions of fate, unless I was in a film, which I suppose he knows he is.
[close]
Even so despite a few good lines, it was too obvious.

vrailaine

Having just watched the Front(a film starring Woody Allen but not directed by him), which co-starred Zero Mostel(the original lead for Whatever Works), I can't help but think the film would've worked miles better with some script tweaking and having him as the lead cos he's an incredibly amiable character.


biggytitbo

Woody said in an interview recently that he really wants to do more acting in other peoples films but never gets offered anything.

Tiny Poster

This could have been quite good if it was made in the early 90s with Allen in the lead. David was hopeless trying to play an intellectual - all those alliterative phrases, pseudy words and insults like 'inchworm' and 'twit' just come out of his mouth all wrong. In Seinfeld/CYE, if George/Larry used such terms, it was either with a degree of self-awareness or absurdity, not straight. The scenes where Boris shouts at children are probably the only bits that actually work. Lol.

SavageHedgehog

Here's what I said about this in comedy chat recently:
Quote from: Me on June 27, 2010, 02:43:16 PM
It is getting increasingly easy to suspect he keeps making films mostly to see girls in their early 20s in their underwear...

I imported this at a price that was more than I would generally pay for a single, untested film on a vanilla disc (about £14) and didn't regret it. Granted as a big fan of Allen and a bigger fan of David I'm not the most impartial viewer, but I do still feel it's one of his better straight ahead comedies of the last twenty years or so. This is the first time I've seen Wood in anything and I thought she was great. Not so impressed with supposed "future Bond contender" Henry Cavill though.

The first line was a response to someone else, but I think it works on its own.

vrailaine

Quote from: biggytitbo on July 12, 2010, 08:09:43 AM
Woody said in an interview recently that he really wants to do more acting in other peoples films but never gets offered anything.
Wonder if that has anything to do with how heavily he typecast himself.


scarecrow

I saw it a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it- I'd say it's easily his best since Sweet and Lowdown, and nearly redeems the past decade's output. I actually think it benefitted from Larry David's slightly awkward performance, though it did take getting used to. Was David offered the role due to having played Mostel's Producer's part in Curb? I'd love to see the star and director interviewed together.

Quote from: Tiny Poster on July 12, 2010, 10:40:06 AM
David was hopeless trying to play an intellectual

One line which really did jar for me was that in which LD compares his wife to Benjy from Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. Achingly pretentious- I could buy into the Boris character as a science genius, but less so as a man of the arts. It was a bit like being asked to believe that Jason Biggs can quote Tennessee Williams off the top of his head. There's a similar moment in Annie Hall in which Woody compares himself to Oswald from Ibsen's Ghosts which just about works because it fits the character and reads like exactly the kind of thing that a New York pseud might say.

Henry Cavill was fucking awful. I'm actually surprised that Woody didn't really criticise or condemn his character too.

Tiny Poster

Quote from: scarecrow on July 12, 2010, 05:28:36 PM
Henry Cavill was fucking awful. I'm actually surprised that Woody didn't really criticise or condemn his character too.

I think he's got this dated romantic notion of Englishness which he can't really shake. Allen, that is.

The Cloud of Unknowing

Quote from: Tiny Poster on July 12, 2010, 06:33:06 PM
I think he's got this dated romantic notion of Englishness which he can't really shake. Allen, that is.

As I think I mentioned in CC some time ago, has anyone ever met an English man with the name Randy?  (The role was meant for an American actor originally, but still.) 

GoochDogHigh5s

Quote from: vrailaine on July 12, 2010, 01:11:55 AM
Having just watched the Front(a film starring Woody Allen but not directed by him), which co-starred Zero Mostel(the original lead for Whatever Works), I can't help but think the film would've worked miles better with some script tweaking and having him as the lead cos he's an incredibly amiable character.

Ahh , The Front is a marvellous film
Especially Woody's pay off line at the end