Larry David Playing Larry David Playing Woody Allen

Chance, luck and fate are themes that are often examined in a plethora of genres. One director who analyses these topics in interesting ways is the always entertaining Woody Allen. Many of his recent motion pictures, including Match Point, have scrutinized these random and inscrutable aspects of life: with the phrase “I’d rather be lucky than good” being one of the observations found in the above stated film. Another of his movies, this one more comedic, that tackles these topics is the lesser known 2009 flick Whatever Works.

After Woody Allen’s rather lengthy foray in Europe, he returned to his beloved New York to make this comedy starring Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm creator Larry David (as a typical Woody Allen type character). He plays Boris, a genius who was nearly nominated for a Nobel Prize, who now lives in reclusiveness in his ramshackle New York City apartment, spending his time finding issue with the unintellectual masses and observing the conundrums of life, philosophy, religion and the like.

It is by inconceivable chance that a young southern belle named Melody Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood) lands outside his doorstep, starving and alone – though in his neurotic mind, he immediately fears that he is being distracted by her and that he will soon be jumped by her male companion. After letting the woman into his home, he eventually caves and allows the simple, gullible and charming young lass to sleep on his couch until she gets settled in the big city.

Boris begins to rub off on the impressionable woman, with his chaotically dim world view being adopted, someone inaccurately, by Melody. As the twosome spend more time together, she falls for the quirky individual and they marry (though he still cannot believe it).

Eventually, Melody’s religious parents, Marietta (Patricia Clarkson) and John (Ed Begley Jr.), show up separately looking for their missing daughter (though she left a note explaining where she was going). Neither agree with the unorthodox relationship, though we slowly watch ‘the city that never sleeps’ begin to seep into their essence, possibly making them a more authentic version of themselves?

Marietta takes a special interest in breaking up the severely age gapped couple, trying to insert charming British actor Randy (Henry Cavill) in Boris’ stead. In the end, after hilarity, drama, heartbreak and random happenchance shape the script, we are left with a perspective that we should do‘whatever works’ to give us some level of happiness in this harsh and cruel world that we live in.

Whatever Works is a pretty typical yet entertaining piece of work from Woody Allen. His casting of Larry David is perfect. There is no one better for playing a neurotic, irreverent, misanthropic, cynical hypochondriac genius (than perhaps Allen himself). He is a treat to watch and is always entertaining. It is especially engaging when he addresses us, the audience, in what can be seen as something of a modern Shakespearian aside or soliloquy. I also got a kick out of the way he delivered his negative world view and numerous insults to children and adults alike. Wood does a solid job keeping up with the sharp-tongued and witty lout, and it is charming to watch her fall under his dyspeptic spell. It is also fun to see the rest of the cast metamorphosize over the course of the film.

Though Allen takes a more light-hearted approach to chance, luck and fate in this picture, it is still a rather thought-provoking topic. It will likely spawn discussion on how much control we actually have in life or if we are just lucky, unlucky or destined to fall into the lap of someone we have never known – a truly miraculous and inconceivable prospect when one ponders all of the minute detail that lead to two people meeting and hitting it off. In any case, it does not take a near Nobel Prize nominated genius to realize that you should watch this film – after all, it was a mix of chance, luck and fate that brought you here in the first place.