There is no denying that Woody Allen has an incredible body of work from some incredibly funny comedy albums before his film career and, of course, his amazing film career. However, for the most part, his best films date back to the earliest part of his career with the films that he has made in the last 10 years or so, pretty much a hit or miss affair. However, one of his better recent films is the excellent Vicky Christina Barcelona released in 2008 which ranks up there with some of his best work. On the heels of Vicky Christina Barcelona comes Whatever Works which is the subject of today’s review. Can Woody make it two winners in a row? While the film has its moments, the answer is not quite.
Film
Whatever Works stars Larry David as (what else?) a crotchety misanthrope named Boris who comes to the aid of Melody, a naive and impressionistic teenage girl from the deep South who somehow and inexplicably, runs away from home and makes her way somehow to New York City and to the bottom of the stairway leading to Bori’s loft. Larry David is taking on the role that Woody Allen normally reserves for himself and would seem to be a natural as his character on Curb Your Enthusiasm has many of the same attributes as Boris.
Boris is totally devoid of any social skills, says whatever he wants despite the consequences, is quite miserable, thinks he is smarter than anyone else and is the only one with the answers to life’s questions. He is an emotional cripple who thinks he is developing just about every fatal illness known to man and who has even attempted suicide. It is when he meets the lovely and innocent Melody (Evan Rachel Ward), that he begins to change just a tad, eventually becoming enthralled with her despite her obvious, at least to him, intellectual shortcomings. Don’t judge the film by the first half, which moves rather slowly, introducing you to the main characters. It is in the second half of the film where the narrative really takes off, especially with the arrival of Melody’s mother (Patricia Clarkson) and later her father (Ed Begley, Jr.), who try to rescue her from the decadent New York City and who eventually get caught up in the City’s web of shall I say, decadence?
The film is filled with what you would expect from a Woody Allen film, plenty of sarcasm, free following dialogue with some incredibly large and lofty sounding words and plenty of sexual content. While Larry David is fine as Boris, he is just not as engaging with this kind of material as Woody Allen is himself, although he certainly tries. While not one of Woody Allen’s best efforts, it is certainly worth a look as a rental. Who knows, you may just like a lot better than I did. Recommended as a rental only.
Video
There is no question that this is a fine looking transfer. Fans of the look of film rather than HD video, will love the look of this release. The film features a nicely saturated color palette which tends to look rather warm, with each of the various actors have a reddish looking complexion. Blacks levels are stable but not what I would call deep. The fine grain structure of film is well preserved with no evidence that I could detect of the application of digital noise reduction.
If you are looking for a crystal clear image, you will be disappointed with the look of the film which appears to have been filmed with a bit of a soft focus. However, while the image is a tad on the soft side, all the detail appears to be intact both facial detail as well as fine background details. As a result of the softer focus, the image lacks the clarity and depth of the best looking films I have seen on Blu-ray. However, I would not go as far as to describe the image as looking flat. I have no doubt that this release looks exactly as it is supposed to look and just as Woody Allen intended it to look. If you enjoy the traditional look of film, you will love the look of this release.
Audio
As is the case with most if not all of Woody Allen’s films, the audio here seems to have been almost an afterthought. There is little in the way of a sound design here other than simple stereo. This is a totally front heavy release with little, if any, use of the surround speakers. While the film appears to be a 5.1 mix, it may as well have been simple stereo. Given the sound design, it is surprising that the audio is presented encoded with DTS HD Master Audio. While the sound design is as basic as it gets, the overall fidelity of the recorded sound is very good, sounding natural and lifelike. The dialogue in particular is always intelligible which is extremely important given that the film is nothing but dialogue, other than the occasional classic and jazz music in the background. This is about as simple as it gets folks.
Special Features
Surprisingly, there are no film based extras included with this release. The only extras are a theatrical trailer for the film and a preview of an upcoming release, An Education. There are no behind the scenes featurettes on the making of the film, no deleted screens or even director commentary. There is no digital copy included. However, the disc is BD-Live enabled which will allow viewers with BD-Live enabled players to download exclusive content not on the disc and give feedback by way of a viewer survey. You may want to encourage them to include more in the way of extras on their future releases when you complete those surveys.
Final Thoughts
While not among Woody Allen’s best films, Whatever Works is nonetheless a witty and engaging films that is well worth a look. Recommended as a rental only.
