Whatever Works (2009)

Larry David and Woody Allen Make Misanthropic Music Together

Jul 5, 2009 Martin G. Wood

Whatever Works is Woody Allen's starkest comedy since Deconstructing Harry (1997), and one of his best in over a decade; thanks to another sharp turn by Larry David.

These pretzels are making me thirsty!

Thus spake Kramer, the hipster-doofus who somehow found himself in position to deliver the aforementioned line in a Woody Allen movie; the absurd scenario played out in The Alternate Side episode of the classic American sitcom Seinfeld, written by the star of Woody Allen’s Whatever Works; Larry David, who eighteen years prior wrote the Seinfeld script, inspired by his very slight appearances in Woody Allen’s Radio Days (1987) and New York Stories (1989).

Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm

Since the demise of Seinfeld, Larry David has accomplished what many considered an impossible task; not only creating a show as good as Seinfeld; but, by some estimates, topping it.

With his bold brand of sarcastic, abrasive, and cringe-inducing neuroses on display in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David has tapped into a universal inability to adapt and assimilate into society; to bastardize Thoreau: men lead lives of awkward desperation.

Larry David plays Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm; and how much of Larry David's angst-driven fury on the show is actually Larry David is unknown; but, there is little question, that since Curb’s inception in 2000, Larry David has created a singular comic character, unlike any America has seen since Woody Allen won the hearts and minds of smart-asses everywhere in the 1970’s.

Larry David meets Zero Mostel meets Woody Allen

In season 4 of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David is approached by Mel Brooks to play Max Bialystock in his Broadway play The Producers; a role which was originally played by the legendary comic actor Zero Mostel.

Rumor has it, Woody Allen wrote Whatever Works in the 1970’s for Mr. Mostel; only to find the project halted indefinitely, when Zero unexpectedly died of a heart attack.

Thirty years later, on the eve of an actor’s strike, Woody Allen found himself in a rush to produce a script; with time running out, Allen decided to dust off the old Zero Mostel script.

After some tweaks and touch-ups, Woody Allen had his script ready for production, and then set about finding someone to fill the role of the misanthropic malcontent, Boris Yelnikoff, whose skewed view of the world constantly places him at odds with the people around him.

How Allen chose to cast Larry David in the role is not clear; but, in interviews, Larry David claims to have been deeply troubled (albeit comically so) by the prospect of starring in a Woody Allen film; confessing to fears of imminent disaster from the very beginning of production.

Fans of Curb Your Enthusiasm will recognize the squirming, angst-ridden man of self-doubt, as the very same Larry David from season 4 of Curb Your Enthusiasm, who was convinced that his presence would be ruinous to Mel Brooks’ The Producers, sure to bring shame upon the great name of Zero Mostel.

Whatever Larry David Does, Works

Whatever Works opens and closes with Larry David addressing the audience directly a la Alvy Singer in Annie Hall; but, where Alvy Singer’s rants were delicately laced with semi-sweet romanticism, Larry David’s Boris Yelnikoff is older, possibly wiser, and definitely darker than the heart-broken hero of Annie Hall.

The opening monologue delivered as only Larry David can, is striking, and jarring; not simply because it is brutally funny, but, because to watch a character in a modern American film stand still for more than a minute, and deliver one brilliant line after another, is unheard of.

Grumpy Gus Boris is a self-proclaimed genius, pontificating all over New York City, alienating everyone he comes in contact with; until one night, his luck is changed by an impossibly naïve southern urchin named Melodie St. Ann Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood).

Pretty much everything that Boris finds wrong with the world will be personified by Melodie, and her religious right mother and father (played with relish by Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley, Jr.); and Allen skillfully sets them up initially for one-liners by David, before fleshing them out, and delivering them safely to a somewhat convenient, albeit hilarious climax.

Whatever Works delivers some of the biggest laughs from a Woody Allen film since Bullets Over Broadway (1994); and while the critical reception may be mixed, a quick perusal of fan reaction via TheAutuers.com and IMDb.com indicates fans are quite pleased.

Unfortunately, movie history is written by a select few critics and a skewed box office; which is a shame, because Whatever Works may well be Woody Allen’s best comedy in over a decade; and it’s in no small part due to whatever it is that Larry David does that makes him such a strange sort of everyman for the 21st Century.

For further consideration of Woody Allen's films, read A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982) and Woody Allen's Four Decades In Film.

The copyright of the article Whatever Works (2009) in Romantic Films/Comedies is owned by Martin G. Wood. Permission to republish Whatever Works (2009) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Whatever Works

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Oct 30, 2009 3:55 PM

Guest :

Whatever Works is probably Woody Allen's worst film, or Larry David is trying to be a younger Woody Allen which just doesn't work when you are near seventy yourself. Poor Larry, obviously needs to go back to L.A. This is not a good memory of his talent. Another one screwed by Woody Allen.

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