Whatever Works

There are certain kinds of people who would appreciate this straight-to-DVD release from director Woody Allen, but unfortunately very few of them will ever watch it, because they would have to not be familiar with Allen’s films or Larry David’s HBO series. Whatever Works lacks the edginess of both David and Allen’s better work. Not to say there isn’t a certain charm to the film, or that it’s all bad. Based on a story Allen wrote decades ago, Whatever Works is centered around an aging quantum physicist named Boris and played by that guy from Curb Your Enthusiasm. He is kind of an asshole, you know, like that guy from Curb Your Enthusiasm, and a lot of situational humor and hilarity ensues, you know, like that one show, How I Met Your Mother. Because he is, as he often reminds us, a brilliant physicist with a deeper understanding of reality, Boris has a bleak view of life mirroring Sartre’s existential nausea — in essence, “Everything that exists is born for no reason, carries on living through weakness, and dies by accident,” though he says it in a somewhat more terse way. He constantly suffers panic attacks about death and is hostile to friend and stranger alike, but despite all of this, he still is able to find love and friendship in the most random of places. Years after attempting suicide and divorcing his wife, he lets a desperate young girl live in his home, and despite Boris’ best efforts, an unlikely romance begins to kindle.

It hardly needs to be said that David’s character is basically a stand in for Woody Allen, as he has everything, from the death-obsession to the marrying-of-a-barely-of-age-girl, down to a tee (Allen himself would be unable to star in this role for obvious reasons). The rest of the characters in this story, however, seem far too flat to be based on anyone in reality, they are more like sitcom archetypes — the young, naive girl from the sticks moving into the big city, the charming male actor who lives in a house boat, the conservative Christian who is secretly gay — the characters and situations in the film seem more suited for an episode of Caroline in the City than for a feature film, but this seems to be acknowledged by Larry David’s character when he speaks to the camera despite the confusion of the other people in the movie. He is a genius, after all, and unlike everyone else, he knows this is all a big joke, he can see beyond the curtains to the theater full of cretins and mouth-breathers watching him. Unfortunately audiences didn’t find the joke funny enough for a theatrical release.