Whatever Works Review

Whatever Works shouldn't work.

It's a story of an old, cynical, Jewish New Yorker that Woody Allen wrote for himself but doesn't star in.

It has a young, naive Southern belle that fits every single stereotype known to man who falls in love with this crippled old man and marries him even when all he does is point out exactly how wrong she is in everything that she does.

It involves a staunchly conservative couple from the South turn into a polyamourous artsy photographer and an openly gay man.

It involves the same crippled man jump out of the window in the same fashion that caused his limp earlier and land on a middle aged woman who gets with him subsequently.

Whatever works may be the most farfetched, cliche-ridden, nonsensical thing you have ever seen.

But it works.

It works so well.

A large part of that is down to Larry David - who plays his role as the prototypical Woody Allen character with such finesse that you'd imagine them to be twins seperated at birth.

What David does is add onto the typical Woody-esque character's traits with a certain sense of 'angry old man' arrogance and resentment which fits the character of Boris Yelnikoff perfectly and makes him an objectionable yet likeable man.

Don't watch Whatever Works if you're looking for a Woody Allen movie with the emotional depth of Hannah and Her Sisters, or the realistic, yet hilarious portrayal of love as seen in Annie Hall. Don't watch it if you want something whimsically enchanting like Midnight in Paris or suspenseful like Match Point.

Watch it because whatever this movie is, it works.

3.5/5