Every Wednesday, FM writers Simon Columb and Brogan Morris write two short reviews on Woody Allen films … in the hope of watching all his films over the course of roughly 49 weeks. If you have been watching Woody’s films and want to join in, feel free to comment with short reviews yourself! Next up is Whatever Works and The Purple Rose of Cairo…
Simon Columb on Whatever Works:
Considering the cynical, critical and self-analytical ‘Larry David’ in Curb Your Enthusiasm, it is no surprise that he plays the ‘Woody Allen’ character in Whatever Works. Boris (Larry David) is a chess teacher and former professor. Despite his hyper-critical nature, he becomes the crush of Melodie (Evan Rachel Wood) – a 21 year-old runaway Boris finds on his doorstep. Though Allen turns to tried-and-tested narrative techniques (Boris talks to us directly throughout), it feels like a wannabe-Woody film, rather than actually by the New Yorker who directed Manhattan and Annie Hall. It feels dated and doesn’t seem to say anything that we haven’t heard before – and Allen claims the script was written in the 1970s. Indeed, the characters are simplistic – Deep South folk are repressed; the religious Father is, in fact, gay, etc. Hey, I look forward to the new Woody Allen – but in 2010, we expected much more.
Brogan Morris on The Purple Rose of Cairo:
Back in a time when Jeff Daniels could convincingly play a debonair playboy sex symbol, Woody Allen cast him in the double role of a suave silver screen tomb raider and the uptight actor playing him in The Purple Rose of Cairo. And while Daniels’ casting is perfect, the concept of his Tom Baxter bursting from the silver screen to sweep Mia Farrow’s downtrodden depression-era waitress off her feet isn’t played for all its potential fish-out-of-water hilarity. Instead, Allen takes a great high concept and uses it as a placeholder to criticise the nature of romantic movie love – the filmmaker wants you to realise there’s no place for it in the real world. And while the lighter-than-air plot makes the film minor Woody Allen, the director infuses the story with a bittersweet tang, embodied in Farrow’s lonely fantasist. The Purple Rose of Cairo is entertaining and wonderfully performed, but it’s the other, darker flipside of Midnight In Paris’ hopeful coin.
Brogan Morris – Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the young princes. Follow Brogan on Twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion.
Originally published August 28, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
