It had nothing to do with the age gap, in "Manhattan", Woody Allen's character dates a young student, he's probably 20 years younger than Boris but I don't think the whole message of the film was "she is young", "he is old" then it's a big WRONG. I don't think there was some sort of moral condemnation of any sort, on the contrary, you have a film that exhilarates all the little pleasures life can give you, and invites you to free yourself from moral, social or religious prohibitions. So, as long as she's 21, like the title says, "Whatever Works".
Of course, they were not meant to be together but it had nothing to do with age, or at least, not exclusively, I think it had to do with the fact that Melody wanted to be with Boris for the wrong reasons: she grew up in a very dysfunctional family with an overbearing God-fearing mother and a straight-laced yet unfaithful father (so much for family models) so she jumped at the first man who would be the perfect antithesis to the only adult figures she ever had in her life: a scientist, quantum physics expert and an intellectual malcontent, she must have thought he would complete her in a sort of way. Love is all about filling gaps, and the way the characters evolve in the film shows that one's only happy when he filled the right gap. Take the father (Ed Begley Jr.), he raised a family to hide a latent homosexuality, once he admitted it, he knew exactly what was missing in his life and so he was happy, he wasn't happy because he found a man of his age, but just a man he loved.
And I don't know why 'age' is such an issue by the way, you talk about 'ridiculousness' while "Whatever Works" puts the whole concept of 'ridiculous' into perspective. Something that seems preposterous or unacceptable for a character becomes a new standard of life and a source of intellectual or emotional blooming later. Yes, Boris can't stop bragging about his superior intellect or complaining about the superficiality and pointlessness of life, yes, he cat say anything nice about anyone, but maybe Melody was going through a phase where it was something that had a positive effect on her, so why should you dismiss it? Again, whatever works. If Melody's mother (Patricia Clarkson) wants to have a menage a trois or discover new sensations, why should her daughter restrict her own sentimental area to a specific demographic group. It sounds rational of course, but this isn't a film about rationality, hell, Boris committed suicide because he couldn't stand the perfection of his previous wife.
Boris had issues, big issues, but he's such a complex character that you can't reduce his lack of appeal to the 'age' factor, the man is simply misusing his intelligence by being totally disillusioned about life and hostile toward any human being who can't reach his almighty mind, he even throws chess pieces on children he calls "inchworms", but with Melody, he can't do the usual schtick because she admits his "superiority", she accepts it and embraces it, so, the poor guy is disarmed. And to complete the picture, when you have such a cheerful and adorably naive little creature who loves you and admires you, well, if not his heart, Boris' ego couldn't say 'no'. And step by step, he learns to live with her and to appreciate her, until she becomes indispensable to his own well-being. It's very revealing that in the second act, he starts smiling more and being kinder to her, but from our standpoint, we know she became less a wife than a carer, the other side of the coin is that she also grew some maturity, enough to be able to think for herself and question her choices.
Melody understands she lived with Boris as a reaction to her past, and that move is typical from girls of her age, and he was brilliant within his own grouchiness, but she was proud of him, of that intellect that somewhat reflected on her, so she could use his lines on his absence, with more or less efficiency. All this stuff is pretty swell, but it has nothing to do with love, but that's the little problem I have in the film. When it started, I didn't know where it was going exactly, and I felt like Larry David's speeches would quickly get on my nerves, but progressively, the plot advanced without giving any signs of where it was going, yet the story was absorbing in a way I just stopped caring and wanted to embrace the film's unpredictability with a lot of fun and enthusiasm. As ludicrous as it seemed that the two would marry, I was ready to accept it. Who said that an old curmudgeon like Boris wouldn't deserve an adorable and loving wife like Melody? To every "Why", there's a "Why not"?
Then the mother came and did her best to wreck the marriage, without even letting her daughter make the choice by herself, and even when she adopted a more free-spirited lifestyle, she was still trying to put that Randy James in the arms of Melody. That it worked, and very easily, was a kind of letdown to me. It was like good old Hollywood again, what did you expect, the pretty blonde girl with the handsome young man, they were cute together, but I felt a bit cheated because the whole film has been such a hymn to unconventional happiness that there was something frustratingly cliché about Randy and Melody. And when she had to tell the truth to Boris, he had that face that was saying "who am I kidding?". Melody had perfectly good reasons to leave him, but I wish it was because of a personal choice, not because she met your average handsome smooth talker, and certainly not her mother's protégé. At least, Boris has always been sincere with her, Randy gave his best shot, brought her to his boat, gave her wine, pretended stuff etc., so it's not like he didn't exploit some of her naivety.
Anyway, the film called for a happy ending, so everything went well for everybody, and Boris seemed to have found a soul-mate while committing a second suicide, but I wish his arc and Melody's had closed in a more satisfying way, there should have been 'a catch' with being with the medium or some sort of punchline, not just a last-minute heart-filler. As for Randy, I wish Melody would have just dumped him after her divorce, if she had grown more maturity and a bigger desire for independence, she should have known she deserved more than the guy her mother used to ruin her first relationship. I wish she was with someone else, another guy, another girl, two guys, or how about a guy of Boris' age, anything that would have called for 'whatever works' as a conclusion. Woody Allen is one hell of a writer, and it was a great idea to have the neurotic New Yorker played by someone else, but the botched final act doesn't do justice to the story it was telling.
Oh, well...
(Sorry for the length, I guess, I just got carried away...)
Darth Vader is scary and I The Godfather
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