For me, Woody Allen has usually been either genius or misfire.  And my opinions don’t always match well with those of movie critics.  The Mighty Aphrodite was boring to me…I barely got a laugh out of it.  Yet it seemed I couldn’t find a critic who didn’t love it from start to finish.  Whatever Works, his latest film, has received rather negative reviews, or mixed at best.  True, it has some flaws, but overall Whatever Works is a wonderful, fun film, full of laughs and witty dialogue.

Larry David plays Boris Yellinikov, a self-proclaimed genius who at one time was considered for a Nobel prize in physics.  After the break-up of his marriage, the onset of terrible panic attacks, and a failed suicide attempt, he leaves his comfortable life for a small apartment in Manhattan, where he makes his living teaching children how to play chess.  In this case, teaching is a euphemism for yelling at them, berating them for their mistakes, and dumping the pieces on their heads.  Boris has a true disdain for humanity.  He refers to the common people at inchworms, cretins, and idiots.  He, the genius, can see the big picture: life is pointless, the things we fill our lives with are meaningless, and it will all come to an end sooner rather than later.  And, as a race, humans are not inherently good or kind.  They are stupid, lazy, selfish, and unreliable. 

One evening Boris is approached by Melody St. Ann Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood), a kind, innocent, and thoughtful 18-year-old runaway looking for someplace to stay the night.  For whatever reason, Boris gives in, and one night turns to two turns to a month.  The two strike up a friendship, with Boris lecturing Melody on the stupidity of the world and the people in it (including herself).  Melody, for her part, is pure southern country, and seems not to mind when Boris calls her a cretin or an inchworm.  She helps Boris through his frequent panic attacks, hypochondria, and OCD compulsions (singing Happy Birthday twice, out loud, every time he washes his hands to be sure he is getting all the germs off).  Incredibly, she picks up and adopts a few of his theories on society, which delights Boris.  Slowly, Melody is growing and changing and learning, but not blindly following; she still has her own beliefs and ideas.

Eventually, and inevitably, their relationship grows beyond friendship.  Meanwhile we’re introduced to Melody’s parents…first her mother (Patricia Clarkson) and then her father (Ed Begley Junior), both southerners with strong faith in the Bible; at least until New York City grabs hold of them and they begin to think about what they want instead of what is expected of them.

There are a few minor problems.  Larry David does a decent job, but every once in a while you feel you’re watching Larry David and not Boris Yellinkov.  There is also a gimmick where Boris speaks to the camera; that in itself is not a problem, but the goofy way people keep asking him who he is talking to falls flat.  The point seems to be that, as he says many times, only HE sees the whole picture, but the effect doesn’t work.  The ending isn’t quite what I hoped for either, but it does help to highlight what Boris learns through his experiences (and which ties into his string theory past): a never-ending stream of minor events and unlikely occurrences, we are born, grow, and live our lives…but take away any of those events, and we would not be where we are now.  We are the sum of all that we have experienced good and bad. 

That is a message I try to remind myself of – more so because Heather sees so much of me in the Boris character.  If I had not lived through all the bad experiences that I survived, I would not be who I am now, and more importantly, I would not be where I am now.  Somehow, through it all, I found myself face-to-face with the woman of my dreams…astronomical odds, but it happens, and to more people than the odds suggest possible.

Whatever Works is disappearing from theaters as I write this, so you’ll probably have to see the movie on DVD instead.  Do so, and let me know what you thought.