Whatever Works 2009

Amy Nicholson, Boxoffice Magazine: For now, [Allen] has given up making films that are about anything bigger than a quirky theme and a few dozen one-liners. Read more

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: It's no secret that I am a lifelong Woody Allen fan. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Coming off last year's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the freshest Allen film in more than a decade, Whatever Works plays like a hoary old Broadway stage comedy yanked, reluctantly, into the present. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: The movie was emblematic of his output of late -- slight plots, slighter characters, lackadaisical storytelling that recycles enough of the neuroses-fueled charm of his earlier films to keep the Woody Allen machine in business. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: In small doses, [David] turns the narcissistic jerk into a hipster. But as an actor he has no equipment for suggesting a conflicted inner life: It's all just straight to the camera, uninflected bombast. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: It never registers as more than a writer's conceit. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's a movie that feels assembled from the leftovers Allen found in his fridge. Read more

Ruth Hessey, MovieTime, ABC Radio National: All rather mellow and predictable. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Dusting off an ancient script intended for Zero Mostel three decades ago, Allen tweaks the material enough to supply David with bilious rants about the stupidity and meaninglessness of man and the universe. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Whatever Works would have only worked if its director had written his trademark self-caricature out of it. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Except for brief moments, Whatever Works does not involve. Read more

Robert Abele, Chicago Tribune: Coming off last year's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the freshest Allen film in more than a decade, Whatever Works plays like a hoary old Broadway stage comedy yanked, reluctantly, into the present. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: After the fiercely enjoyable Vicky Christina Barcelona, this return to New York City is a letdown, though not without a few charms. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The result is a witty, well-played work without an adequate center. If you can get past that, Whatever Works does. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The fact that Allen wrote the script in the '70s explains something about why his newest movie feels so old. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Whatever Works is a slapdash composition built around a single note. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: This is pretty broad stuff, but Clarkson is so much more vital and amiable than anyone else that you instantly root for her. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: As a holding pattern until Allen gets a new, better movie together, this works for now. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: It's good to have Allen return to the city he grew up in. Can the grown-up Woody come back now, please? Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: The Woodman's return to New York after a four-year European sojourn finds him working very familiar territory much less fruitfully than in the past. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Whatever Works is a dubious idea at best, but when nothing works, it's time to throw out the script and move on to omething that does. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Whatever Works isn't deep, but with Grandpa Woody, you accept the warmed over, the recycled, just relieved he hasn't made a spectacle of himself. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Allen and David do stuff in Whatever Works that shouldn't work but does. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Larry David is the mind of the enterprise, and Evan Rachel Wood is the heart. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Whatever Works feels like something out of time and, worse, out of step. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: A belabored trifle that's occasionally amusing but often just bewildering, beginning with the movie's intentionally outlandish setup. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Woody Allen had a nice winning streak going for him, and then he brought in his younger self to screw things up. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: The idea of wedding Woody Allen's comic persona (the introverted nebbish) to Larry David's (the entitled jerk) sounds promising on paper, but as Boris portentously observes just before his unsuccessful suicide attempt, life doesn't take place on paper. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Whatever Works isn't topnotch Woody Allen, but it's still immensely funny. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 30 years after he wrote and shelved this script, the conceptual creakiness of Whatever Works might have been redeemed only by the director in the starring role. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: As Whatever Works creaks along, the attention-getting nastiness of the first half dissipates and it turns into just another Woody Allen overacted sex farce. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: We've seen this kind of May-December setup in many Allen movies, but this one follows a less predictable path and with more amusing secondary characters. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Ben Walters, Time Out: For all its wobbles, Whatever Works is rooted in an agreeable sensibility: life favours fate over luck more than we'd like to think, so grab whatever chances of happiness come your way. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: One would think Allen had worked though his on-screen fascination with the older man-young girl scenario by now. This latest exploration just feels derivative and musty. Read more

Ronnie Scheib, Variety: Though stuffed with witty one-liners and wondrously convoluted tirades, this far-fetched, deliberately artificial game of musical chairs...feels forced, often losing itself in excess verbiage. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Whatever Works illustrates, even as it names, Allen's artistic limitations. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: This toxic, contemptuous, unforgivably unfunny bagatelle finds Allen at his most misanthropically one-note. Read more