Whatever Works

Last updated
Whatever Works
Whatever works.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Woody Allen
Written byWoody Allen
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Harris Savides
Edited by Alisa Lepselter
Production
companies
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
Release dates
  • April 22, 2009 (2009-04-22)(Tribeca)
  • June 19, 2009 (2009-06-19)(United States)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$15 million [1]
Box office$35 million [2]

Whatever Works is a 2009 American comedy film directed and written by Woody Allen and starring Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley Jr., Michael McKean, and Henry Cavill. It was released on June 19, 2009, received mixed reviews and grossed $35 million.

Contents

Plot

Boris Yelnikoff is a cynical, misanthropic chess teacher and former Columbia quantum mechanics professor. Divorced, he avoids most people, and except for three friends and his students, is patronizing to anyone he meets who doesn't match him intellectually. He also spends much of the film washing his hands, while singing the song, "Happy Birthday".

Boris comes home one night to find Melody, a simpleminded 21-year-old, on his doorstep. He reluctantly helps her, and she soon tells him her story. Melody turns out to have a distinctly Southern background, with fundamentalist parents in Mississippi, from whom she's run away. She asks if she can stay the night, which Boris eventually allows. While staying with Boris, Melody develops a crush on him, despite their age difference, varying cultures and intelligence.

Melody soon finds a job as a dog walker where she meets Perry Singleton, and they arrange a date. When she comes back home afterwards, she explains to Boris, she didn't like Perry because he loved the world too much. Boris realizes that he's in love with her and they soon marry.

A year later, Melody's mother, Marietta, finds Melody, explaining that she and her husband, John, thought Melody had been kidnapped. She goes on to tell her that John left her and sold their house after John lost money in the stock market. She meets Boris and is disappointed with him, so she tries to persuade Melody to end the marriage. The three go for lunch and meet Boris's friend, Leo. When Marietta goes to use the restroom, a young man, Randy Lee James, inquires about Melody and Marietta slyly decides to recruit Randy, who has fallen in love with Melody at first sight, to end her marriage. Later that evening, Leo, who had taken an interest in Marietta, asks her over for dinner. They spend the evening together, and discover that she's a talented photographer.

Boris explains to the audience that over the next few weeks Marietta has changed and started experimenting with artistic photography, exotic new habits, and starting an open relationship with Leo and his business partner, Morgenstern. Marietta still hates Boris and keeps trying to get Melody to marry Randy. She takes Melody to an outdoor market and "accidentally" runs into Randy, who questions her about her marriage. Melody sees past Marietta's attempt and tells him that her marriage is fine. She warns her mother to stop, but Marietta continues to try. Later, while shopping for clothes, Melody meets Randy in yet another planned encounter and he gets her to admit that her relationship with Boris isn't entirely satisfying. He then invites her to the boat he lives on, and the two kiss and begin an affair.

John arrives at Boris and Melody's home remorseful and hopes to get the family back together. They all go to Marietta's photography exhibit opening together, and he sees how his ex-wife has changed since she moved to New York. Distraught, he retreats to a bar, drinking away his misery. While there, he meets a recently divorced gay man, Howard, and admits what he has known most of his adult life: that he is also gay.

Melody finally tells Boris she's in love with Randy, and Boris is devastated, jumping out the window. He lands on another woman, Helena, breaking her arm and leg. When he visits her in the hospital, Boris asks her if there is anything he can do to make it up to her, Helena says she would like to go to dinner with him.

Finally, Boris hosts a New Year's Eve party, where everyone is in their new relationships: Marietta with Leo and Morgenstern, John is with Howard, Melody with Randy, and finally Boris with Helena. Melody and her parents have completely shed their former Southern conservative mindsets and wholeheartedly adopted the liberal New York City way of life and values. Everyone is now the best of friends, and at midnight they kiss their significant others.

Afterward, it is revealed that only Boris can speak to the audience and he explains that one has to find all the enjoyment one can to find, "Whatever Works".

Cast

In addition, Adam Brooks and Lyle Kanouse portray Boris' two other unnamed friends.

Production

The film was shot in New York City, marking Allen's return to his native city after shooting four films in Europe. David was hesitant to take the role, pointing out to Allen that his work on Curb Your Enthusiasm was improvisation, but Allen encouraged him to take the role anyway. [3]

Partly to counter assertions that the film is autobiographical, [4] Allen has pointed out that the script was written in the early 1970s, with Zero Mostel in mind for Boris; it was shelved after the actor's death in 1977. Thirty years later, Allen revisited the script in an attempt to create a film before a potential threat of a Screen Actors Guild strike. [3] According to Allen, the only significant changes to the script involved updating the topical references. [4] [5]

Soundtrack

Release

On February 2, 2009, Variety reported that Sony Pictures Classics had purchased U.S. distribution rights to Whatever Works. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, [3] on April 22, 2009. Sony gave the film a limited US release, beginning June 19, 2009. Maple Pictures released the film in Canada theatrically, and on DVD in October 2009. The film had its UK release on June 25, 2010. [4]

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 50% based on 165 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Based upon a script written in the 1970s, Woody Allen's Whatever Works suffers from a lack of fresh ideas." [6] According to another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, the film has an average score of 45 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [7]

Reflecting the evenly split approval of the critics, Matthew Oshinsky of The Star-Ledger wrote that the film was a good example of Allen's "ability to write great roles for women" and the film is nowhere near his best work, but it has some funny lines and that "it's at least pleasant". [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woody Allen</span> American filmmaker, actor, and comedian (born 1935)

Heywood Allen is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many accolades, including the most nominations (16) for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He has won four Academy Awards, ten BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Grammy Award, as well as nominations for a Emmy Award and a Tony Award. Allen was awarded an Honorary Golden Lion in 1995, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1997, an Honorary Palme d'Or in 2002, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2014. Two of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

<i>Bound for Glory</i> (1976 film) 1976 American film

Bound for Glory is a 1976 American biographical film directed by Hal Ashby and loosely adapted by Robert Getchell from Woody Guthrie's 1943 partly fictionalized autobiography Bound for Glory. The film stars David Carradine as folk singer Woody Guthrie, with Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon, Gail Strickland, John Lehne, Ji-Tu Cumbuka and Randy Quaid. Much of the film is based on Guthrie's attempt to humanize the desperate Okie Dust Bowl refugees in California during the Great Depression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Kavner</span> American actress (born 1950)

Julie Deborah Kavner is an American actress. Before becoming well-known for her voice role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, Kavner attracted notice for her role as Brenda Morgenstern, the younger sister of Valerie Harper's title character in the sitcom Rhoda, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She also voices other characters for The Simpsons, including Marge's mother, Jacqueline Bouvier, sisters Patty and Selma Bouvier, and half-step-great-aunt Eunice Bouvier.

<i>Hannah and Her Sisters</i> 1986 film by Woody Allen

Hannah and Her Sisters is a 1986 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. It tells the intertwined stories of an extended family over two years that begins and ends with a family Thanksgiving dinner. Allen also stars in the film, along with Mia Farrow as Hannah, Michael Caine as her husband, and Barbara Hershey and Dianne Wiest as her sisters. Alongside them, the film features a large ensemble cast.

<i>Stardust Memories</i> 1980 film by Woody Allen

Stardust Memories is a 1980 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen, who stars alongside Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper, Marie-Christine Barrault, and Tony Roberts. Sharon Stone has a brief role, in her film debut. It follows a filmmaker who recalls his life and his loves—the inspirations for his films—while attending a retrospective of his work. The film is shot in black and white and is reminiscent of Federico Fellini's (1963), which it parodies.

<i>Alice</i> (1990 film) 1990 film by Woody Allen

Alice is a 1990 American fantasy romantic comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Mia Farrow, Joe Mantegna, and William Hurt. The film is a loose reworking of Federico Fellini's 1965 film Juliet of the Spirits, and Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Ellen Letty Aronson is an American film producer. She is the younger sister of writer and director Woody Allen.

<i>Husbands and Wives</i> 1992 comedy-drama film by Woody Allen

Husbands and Wives is a 1992 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. The film stars Allen, Mia Farrow, Sydney Pollack, Judy Davis, Lysette Anthony, Juliette Lewis, Liam Neeson and Blythe Danner. The film debuted shortly after the end of Allen and Farrow's romantic and professional partnership, and was the last of their 13 films together. The movie is filmed by Carlo Di Palma with a handheld camera style and features documentary-like interviews with the characters interspersed with the story.

<i>Love and Death</i> 1975 film by Woody Allen

Love and Death is a 1975 American comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. It is a satire on Russian literature starring Allen and Diane Keaton as Boris and Sonja, Russians living during the Napoleonic Era who engage in mock-serious philosophical debates. Allen considered it the funniest film he had made up until that point.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evan Rachel Wood</span> American actress (born 1987)

Evan Rachel Wood is an American actress. She is the recipient of a Critics' Choice Television Award as well as three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations for her work in film and television.

<i>Mighty Aphrodite</i> 1995 film by Woody Allen

Mighty Aphrodite is a 1995 American comedy film written, directed by, and co-starring Woody Allen, alongside Mira Sorvino, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Rapaport, and F. Murray Abraham. The screenplay was vaguely inspired by the story of Pygmalion and is about Lenny Weinrib's (Allen) search for his genius adopted son's biological mother, ultimately finding that she is a dim-witted prostitute named Linda Ash (Sorvino).

<i>Shadows and Fog</i> 1991 film by Woody Allen

Shadows and Fog is a 1991 American black-and-white comedy film directed by Woody Allen and based on his one-act play Death (1975). It stars Allen, Mia Farrow, John Malkovich, Kathy Bates, David Ogden Stiers, Jodie Foster, Donald Pleasence, Lily Tomlin, John Cusack, Madonna, and Kenneth Mars. It was filmed on a 26,000-square-foot (2,400 m2) set at Kaufman Astoria Studios, which was the biggest set ever built in New York. It was also Allen's last film for Orion Pictures.

<i>Vicky Cristina Barcelona</i> 2008 film by Woody Allen

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a 2008 romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. The film stars Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson in lead roles. The plot centers on two American women, Vicky and Cristina, who spend a summer in Barcelona, where they meet an artist, Juan Antonio, who is attracted to both of them, while still enamored of his mentally and emotionally unstable ex-wife María Elena. The film was shot in Spain in Barcelona, Avilés, and Oviedo, and was Allen's fourth consecutive film shot outside the United States.

<i>You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger</i> 2010 film by Woody Allen

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is a 2010 comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Freida Pinto, Lucy Punch, and Naomi Watts. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15, 2010, in an out-of-competition slot.

<i>Midnight in Paris</i> 2011 film by Woody Allen

Midnight in Paris is a 2011 fantasy comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. Set in Paris, the film follows Gil Pender, a screenwriter, who is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his materialistic fiancée and their divergent goals, which become increasingly exaggerated as he travels back in time each night at midnight.

<i>To Rome with Love</i> (film) 2012 film

To Rome with Love is a 2012 magical realist romantic comedy film written, directed by and co-starring Woody Allen in his first acting appearance since 2006, as well as his most recent appearance in a film he's directed. The film is set in Rome; it was released in Italian theaters on April 13, 2012, and opened in Los Angeles and New York City on June 22, 2012.

<i>Nebraska</i> (film) 2013 film directed by Alexander Payne

Nebraska is a 2013 American comedy-drama road film directed by Alexander Payne, written by Bob Nelson, and starring Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Stacy Keach, and Bob Odenkirk. Released in black-and-white, the story follows an elderly Montana resident and his son as they try to claim a million-dollar sweepstakes prize on a long trip to Nebraska.

<i>Magic in the Moonlight</i> 2014 film by Woody Allen

Magic in the Moonlight is a 2014 romantic comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. The film stars Eileen Atkins, Colin Firth, Marcia Gay Harden, Hamish Linklater, Emma Stone, Simon McBurney, and Jacki Weaver. Set in the 1920s on the French Riviera, the film was released in the United States on July 25, 2014, by Sony Pictures Classics. Magic in the Moonlight received a mixed reception. Critics praised the performances of Firth and Stone, but found the film's writing formulaic.

<i>Rifkins Festival</i> 2020 film by Woody Allen

Rifkin's Festival is a 2020 comedy film, written and directed by Woody Allen. An American-Spanish-Italian co-production, it stars Wallace Shawn, Elena Anaya, Louis Garrel, Gina Gershon, Sergi López, and Christoph Waltz. It premiered at the 68th San Sebastián International Film Festival on September 18, 2020, and was released in Spain on October 2, 2020, by Tripictures. A short plot summary appeared in The Guardian on September 4, 2019, stating: "The movie, Rifkin’s Festival, is about a couple who fall in love while in town for the San Sebastián film festival, drawing on the annual event as the backdrop to a romantic comedy."

References

  1. "Whatever Works (2009) - Financial Information". The Numbers . Archived from the original on 26 March 2018. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  2. "Whatever Works (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on April 25, 2010. Retrieved November 11, 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 "Twilight of the Tummlers". New York magazine. June 1, 2009. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2010.
  4. 1 2 3 Higginbotham, Adam (June 22, 2010). "Woody Allen interview for Whatever Works". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on June 25, 2010. Retrieved June 27, 2010.
  5. "Woody Allen, Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood & Others Discuss 'Whatever Works'". Starpulse Entertainment News. June 16, 2009. Archived from the original on June 20, 2009. Retrieved June 19, 2009.
  6. "Whatever Works Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on August 11, 2010. Retrieved June 27, 2010.
  7. "Whatever Works (2009): Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved June 21, 2009.
  8. Oshinsky, Matthew (2009-06-18). "'Whatever Works' movie review - Woody Allen brings his neuroses home". The Star-Ledger . Archived from the original on 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2020-04-19.