MovieChat Forums > Whatever Works (2009) Discussion > Something that bothered me - feedback pl...

Something that bothered me - feedback please


Alright, first off, I am not a Woody Allen fan really. I haven't seen much of his work and of what I have seen I can't really remember much of it. I am a big Larry David fan which is why I saw the movie. So maybe I just don't get how Woody Allen shoots his movies, but I was bothered by the way the movie was shot:

Didn't it seem like a play to anyone else? - Not that this is usually bad, but just the way that his apartment served to hold most of the action and the way that it looked and was set up.

When her (I forgot the main girls name) parents come to find her it seemed like a new act or scence beginning. Very awkwardly done and with no real build up.

Other things that I couldn't stand was the fact that Boris constantly broke the fourth wall and how essentially one note all of the characters were. There was no real rising action either, things just seemed to happen with no reason or cause and it had no real effect on the movie.

That being said (Curb joke), I thought some parts of the movie were very funny, mostly carried by the talent of Larry David. No one else in the movie was very funny or had a real purpose. Who the hell was that guy that stole Boris's girl? His character had no purpose or background, we knew nothing about him except that being really creepy and pushy will get you girls.

My rant is done, someone talk to me about this.

In Tyler We Trusted

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Yes,I agree. I believe it was designed this way. It was like a filmed play. I think it was a chosen style.

The last Woody Allen movie, "Vicky, Christina, Barcelona" was filmed very similarly.

I think a theme of the movie was that life is similar and that people come in an out that don't have purpose or background.

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[deleted]

Thank God someone mentioned the 4th wall factor. That was SO annoying. When the movie kicks off I was chuckling (wow, Larry David and Woody Allen) but as soon as Boris turns to the audience they lost me. Overall it was a disappointing flick. I gave it a 5 out of 10.

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I was groaning, I think that was the beginning of the end for me also, when L.D broke the 4th wall. Especially since they made it really only for theater watching, plus insulting the viewers. I was sitting, alone (which proved useful when I had to skip through parts), and without popcorn, and so I was rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness.

This movie was -so- self serving, you could almost feel Woody Allen being smug behind the scenes, and Boris' attitude was abhorrent, I couldn't stand how he was acting, and Melody really must be the imbecile he called her time and again if she took that kind of abuse. And everyone -calling- him a genius.. ugh..

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Hmm. So you don't like stage plays or fourth walls. OK. I loved it. No car chases, or fiery explosions, or two hot celebrity superstars screaming into each others face why their vehicle plows into a train wreck. That would be cinema, huh? Whatever works.

I miss Big Band music and talented singers. Leonard Cohen is my idol. Civility, harmony, unity!

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The fourth Wall thing: get over it... Woody has made a career out of defiling movie-making conventions. In the only film he won the academy award for, Annie Hall, he broke the fourth wall during the McLuhan in the movie-line scene; and well it is one of the funniest, most poignantly ironic movie scenes in cinematic history. When you've made a film a year for almost 40 years, you'd probably get tired of silly little conventions like the fourth wall.

The rest of your post reminds me of a friend of mine who keeps whining that they should have kept Seinfeld on the air. Curb is a much better show; Seinfeld was so overacted and full of itself by the middle of the first season I couldn't watch it anymore.

How the hell did you miss the transformation of Patricia Clarkson's character? How old are you? Whatever man, weak rant.

...Guess What S1m0ne! We have now entered an age where we can manufacture fraud faster than our ability to detect it

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oh dear.
I imagine you are not a big fan of dogville either.
the young guy with the boat: watch everybody say I love you. all woody's movies are full of these characters. The guy has no purpose of background (yet, he's quite cute): yeah well. it's called FATE. no explanation needed. *beep* just happens.
melinda &melinda is similar to this movie (everything happens in one apartment more or less).
it seemed like a play: well, woody is a big fan of theatre (Ibsen &Co). That's the genious of woody. it's all about the dialogue.
I didn't like larry david much. it was ok, and thank god his character didn't ruin woody's character but he was a bit an 'outsider'. he was like the american pie dude in anything else: he was good, but didn't really fit in well.
as I always say: you need to watch all woody's movies to understand him, and you need to have a certain background (literature and philosophy-wise). Woody is quite complicated. His movies are masterpieces, tho (an the ones that aren't are still enjoyable).
watch vicky cristina barcelona, it's the best comedy of the decade (it can appeal to everybody).

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I agree that it was done like a play on purpose, and I enjoyed it for this reason. I thought it was humorous the way the knocking on the door introduced important characters, just as in a play. (I also thought it especially funny when the mother comes knocking, it's being done to the melody of Beethoven's 5th).

The 4th dimension thing was kind of silly, but it didn't bother me that much.

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My two cents here:

I suspect W Allen tried to make an experiment, mixing techniques of a stand-up show with those of filming a movie - hence the breaking of the 4th wall, mostly shooting in the apartment, sketching vaguely some characters (you don't say too much about the guys in your jokes, when holding a show - it would be too long and boring), moments that could be very well caught in a funny paragraph, like "So he jumps out of the window (ooooh - the audience). Again (laughs). But didn't die, because he fell on a woman, which happened to be a shrink (laughs & applause)" (OK,OK , I'm not a good writer :o) .

But I don't think Larry David was the most fortunate choice here - I saw once a small fragment of his own show, and he was very convincing, but it was his line, not somebody else's script. Also, not being an actor, he wasn't very good at playing with the others.

Allen wanted a furious man as his alter-ego, and choose somebody who could play genuinely the all-knowing *beep* you" character - but, unfortunately, not with another writer's words.

As far as what's happening in the movie - I think it revolves around Allen's question whether "whatever works" is a way of living one's life, or not.
So, gather some friends, put them around a table with a dim light and some wine, and watch the DVD... as you would go in a theater :-)

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Well...guys... so long!
Thanks for all the good ideas that you've shared here.

It seems these Message Boards will be forever deleted by his majesty IMDb, without any regard to its mere users.
Nice to be talking to you here, the most constructive part of a film page...
(the Review part was the worst, with all the too many ego-filled, pretentious "reviews")

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