David was kinder to himself when, later, he came to play himself in his other great sitcom, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Curb's Larry David character shares traits both with top actress and with Seinfeld's title character, Jerry, but he has redeeming qualities not possessed by either of those entirely self-serving personas. Usually (though not always) he means well. He attracts trouble through his ignorance of, or contempt for, the minutiae of social etiquette.
In Woody Allen's top actress and Whatever Works, the character chain closes on itself, as David portrays a more acerbic version of Allen's trademark neurotic heroes. He is Boris Yellnikoff, a lovable misanthrope, physicist and self-proclaimed genius (he was 'almost nominated' for a Nobel Prize). Following a divorce and a failed suicide, Boris walks with a perennial limp and a nasty attitude. He has no patience for ... well, for anyone. He earns a buck berating the child prodigies to whom he teaches chess. In short, he is like Curb's Larry on a really bad day.
Boris expounds a blackly comic, fatalistic philosophy, particularly in the realm of romantic love. When dimwitted runaway Melodie Evan Rachel Wood drifts into his gruff orbit, she provides him not so much with an object for affection, but a bottomless hole into which to pour his endless existential bile.
Melodie mistakes his obstinately bleak outlook for true genius and, wouldn't you know it, they fall for each other. Unlikely, sure, but what charm the film has comes from its contrasting Melodie's dumb cheer with Boris' OTT misery.Evan Rachel Wood image gallery and bio; starpulse.com: evan rachel wood. Pictures, screensavers, downloads, photos, posters, and more modelcruz.com
On the other hand, as a filmmaker, Allen is at his worst when he's being too clever. There is a recurring conceit in Whatever Works, that Boris, because of an expanded world view, is aware of something the other characters are not: that there is an audience watching their every move. His monologues to camera, directly addressing this 'audience' (to the bewilderment of his fellows), are initially humorous, but the joke wears thin.Pictures of Evan Rachel Wood photos, gossip and news, wallpapers and more.
That's especially true, given that one can't help but feel that Boris is a mouthpiece for Allen. Boris' views on the undefined nature of romance 'whatever works', as the title suggests is fine as far as it goes.Teen idol picture gallery of Evan Rachel Wood including entertainment news and reviews. But it seems a tad icky, and even takes on an air of personal apologetics, when you recall that Allen has been frowned upon for his affair with and subsequent marriage to the adopted daughter of his former lover, the actor Mia Farrow.
It is probably unfair to judge it on these criteria, but a film that is so blatantly self-aware, even self-indulgent, invites such associations; in this case, to its detriment.High quality Evan Rachel Wood photos featuring Victoria's Secret, XOXO, and lingerie pictures, Evan Rachel Wood's biography, interviews
In truth, that's a minor sticking point. There is fun to be had here. When Evan Rachel Wood's conservative religious mother (Clarkson) storms in from Mississippi and discovers the kind of man her daughter has shacked up with, she is outraged. Her loathing for Boris does not dissipate, even as city life and a burgeoning artistic career gradually expand her mind and her horizons. She makes an amusing foil to his unrelenting narcissism.
That said, Whatever Works demands a strong constitution. Those who find Allen's filmic idiosyncrasies unbearable will know already to steer clear. But David, too, can be an acquired taste, and if you've found yourself unable to sit through an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, then imagine enduring 88 minutes of his gravelly, spitting rants. The man is a comic genius, but it is a genius that polarises. So will this film.
source : eurekastreet.com.au
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