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List Price: $27.96 | | Label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Salesrank: 1438
Released: October 27, 2009 |
| Our Price: $13.00 |
| Used Price: $9.20 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
No description available for this title.
Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: PG13
Street Date: 10/27/09
Wide Screen: yes
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
Language: ENGLISH
Foreign Film: noSubtitles: no
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve
Description of Whatever Works:
Woody Allen's cynical sensibility so superbly dovetails with Larry David's acerbic misanthropy, it's a wonder they haven't worked together before. But no matter: fans of Allen, David, and especially David's Curb Your Enthusiasm will delight in the ability of Whatever Works to find humor in the darkest and most abrasive of life's corners.
The crux of this odd love story involves the unlikely friendship between David's character (the brilliant, kvetchy Boris) and the Southern beauty queen with a heart of gold and a brain of wide-open spaces, Melodie (the always-surprising Evan Rachel Wood). Boris takes on Melodie as a tutorial project, showing her the bleak ways of the world, and Melodie takes care of Boris with crayfish and Fred Astaire movies. There are other memorable performances by Patricia Clarkson, as Melodie's deeply religious and tightly wound mama, and Ed Harris, as her husband, a Southerner slightly to the right of George Wallace. The parents come to the big city to reclaim their wayward lamb, and when the Southerners meet the New Yorkers, sparks fly--in ways both good and slightly scary.
The film works because of the unlikely chemistry between the two stars and because of David's unflinchingly dyspeptic portrayal, which--while not exactly cozy to watch--is undeniably brilliant. The two find that their oddball friendship helps each of them find a little more meaning in their lives. "Whatever works"--a simple but profound recipe for happiness. --A.T. Hurley
Whatever Works Reviews:
Both Woody Allen & Larry David fail 
2009-11-30 - Why is Larry David playing Woody Allen? Why didn't Woody play himself. Although smartly written, this is very hard to watch. I blame Woody for attempting to have Larry David do this lame impersonation. I cringed the entire movie. It could have been great but ended unbelieveable and total junk. No wonder this crapped out at the theaters.
Classic Woody. Funny and Insightful. 
2009-11-30 - I had not heard a lot about this film prior to getting and so was not sure what to expect. I am a Woody Allen fan in general. I loved this film. I thought it was funny, thought provoking and interesting. It hit on his usual obsessions with new humor. Ed Begley Jr was terrific, but Larry David really made it.
what was Woody thinkin'?
2009-11-25 - This is a shockingly inept movie with few redeeming features. Larry David in particular can't act - he can only be himself and i suppose some people must find his idiosyncrasies likeable. The film (more of a TV show, actually) was shot on the cheap with the minimum effort. Weak, cheesy script. The assumption seems to be that jokes that (might) work in a Brooklyn shtetl will universally apply. I don;t think so. There is no fun in the film, no depth, little actual humor - just a leering David. I liked the Barcelona film. But this? Awful.
Wooden Woody
2009-11-22 - This is the last time I fork out for a Woody Allen movie without knowing anything about the movie first. I'm afraid his credit no longer runs. I have never panned a Woody film before, but this takes the can. Vicky Christina Barcelona was bad enough. Time to hang up the camera and go fishing, Mr. Konigsberg.
This film was buttock clenchingly awful, from the wooden masturbatory fantasy of a plot to the painful effort of the lead to be Woody Allen. I felt sorry for the actors, especially Evan Rachel Wood. Annie Hall it wasn't.
Whatever Works is the best!!!!
2009-11-21 - The best? I think so. Definitely the funniest Woody Allen film ever!!! Easily, hands down!!!
