Latest screening: Whatever Works

I so wanted to like Whatever Works, a comedy that combines the great Woody Allen with the ascerbic genius of Larry David. Throw in Evan Rachel Wood (so great in last year's The Wrestler) and the ever brilliant Patricia Clarkson and surely we have lightning in a bottle? No?! Ah, well, but then maybe expectations were part of the problem.

I didn't dislike Whatever Works. It was no disaster like Cassandra's Dream or even a generally bad but occasionally amusing one like Curse Of The Jade Scorpion or Hollywood Ending. But it also wasn't reeeeeaaaaalllyy funny.

After Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which had me laughing like a drain throughout, i had high hopes for a comedy combining Allen's humour with David's personality. But unfortunately Whatever Works runs along constantly raising a smile but rarely gaining a full-on laugh. It is amusing and likeable but that's all - playing a bit like Anything Else. Of Allen's comedy output over the past decade i would place it behind Melinda & Melinda on a rough par with Small Time Crooks, but maybe not quite as good even as that. Better than Scoop.

This is a shame because David does work as a Woody substitute. In fact, he may be the best Woody substitute in that David has such a distinctive creative voice of his own that he is the first to truly have no trace of Woody in his portrayal. An impressive feat in itself. That said, he isn't really an actor. While the role of Larry David he plays on Curb Your Enthusiasm is an exaggeration, a perfect version of what he wishes he could be and do it has set up an idea of what Larry David is. Here he is playing a different character but it is a slightly more pathetic and needy version of the same Larry we know, and therefore other characters referring to him as Boris just never sounds or seems right. He is not playing a character, he's being Larry David in a Woody Allen film. This might have worked in a brilliantly post-modern way if somehow Woody and Larry had collaborated to make the exact story of Whatever Works with just a few minor tweaks at the beginning into a Curb Movie spin-off.

Evan Rachel Wood is endearingly oddball but never has much to do given her screentime. Clarkson makes an impact as best she can and Ed Begley Jr is dynamite in a briefish role but this is Larry's show. It's more about a single central character than any film Allen has made that he didn't star in.

Perhaps when revisited without the expectations i'll enjoy it more but i was disappointed. Not a disaster by any means but sadly just not really that funny given the talent involved.