Written over 30 years ago and resurrected after the many films that Woody Allen has made since, Whatever Works is a film that pretty much falls right into what you would expect from Allen. Setting the film in motion is a relationship between an older man, Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David), and a younger woman, Melody (Evan Rachel Wood). Central to it story development is Boris’s pessimistic worldview which sees life and everything in it as meaningless and no more than a spiraling path to destruction. Informing the entirety of its plot is the absence of any greater authority or defining force than luck, chance, and our openness to whatever it might send our way. And pretty much flushed down the toilet as soon as they come in contact with Boris’s/Allen’s theory that the only path to happiness is by being open to “whatever works,” are Christianity, traditionalism, and pretty much any other “limiting” belief system out there.
“As you go through life it’s a tough struggle and whatever works that doesn’t hurt anybody is fine,” says Allen of his concept for the movie and the various relationships which unfold inside of it. “However bizarre a romantic relationship may be: if it works, it works. And it doesn’t have to be just about romantic relationships. It can be about one’s occupations, or one’s hobbies, or where one wants to live. … If some utterly unconventional set-up works for you, then there’s nothing wrong with pursuing it.”
In a world in which many of us are so haunted by who we should be or what our lives should look like that we spend most of our lives being someone we are not or pursuing dreams or careers we don’t even like, there are parts of Allen’s logic that I get. In a culture in which we worship false perfection and celebrity, many of the examples we are given to follow simply have no value. With so many unique individuals wandering this earth, it makes sense that the relationships and career paths into which we might perfectly fit would also be equally unique. And sometimes, to ever find the true value in ourselves in the lives we lead, we do need to let go of false definitions of value and meaning to ever find anything true.
But my problem with Whatever Works’ sense of value is the notion that luck and chance have more to do with the identities and relationships the characters find than anything else. Sure, each of the characters do seem to find happiness as they step into the people and possibilities that “chance” sends their way. But less an inspiring reality, the idea that the greatest factor involved in the human ability to find lives of meaning, relationships of love, and identities of substance is luck is one that pretty much makes me want to do like Boris tries to do on numerous occasions and say goodbye to life a little early. I mean, as cool as it is to think I could stumble upon the man and job of my dreams just because I go to a certain restaurant for lunch tomorrow, so is it about the most depressing thing in the world to think I may never find the man of my dreams or the job of my dreams because I never seem to quite hit the right restaurant at the exact right time.
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June 19th, 2009 at 10:31 am
You know, the more films Allen makes, the more apparent it is that his way of thinking is totally bankrupt. If it is at all true that humans invent systems of thought to justify their own behavior, Allen seems a classic case. If one becomes wildly and inexplicably successful while far more talented people flounder, and one can still find no grand purpose behind it, and gets the most satisfaction out of exercising one’s celebrity in order to gratify one’s most base urges, the only conclusion one can possibly come to is that it’s all random.
But with privilege comes great responsibility… which makes no sense in the Land of Luck. If you’re just lucky to have what you have, you can do with it what you will — even throw it away. It means nothing. But if you’ve got what you’ve got for a reason, you need to work hard to find that reason… and then justify what you do with what you have.
Allen squanders his talent and opportunities with meaningless, repetitious ditties that simply reinforce his own notion that he has no responsibility to the world other than satisfying his own whims.
Allen’s legacy is piffle. Thanks for cutting through Allen’s crap and calling it for what it is, E.
June 20th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Thanks, Greg. You know, I keep going to Woody Allen films thinking, maybe this is the one I will like. But two hours and ten bucks later, it never is. Sure, the guy can make me laugh. Sure, he can throw around some thought provoking stories. But when his movies are over, all I’m left with is a mild sense of emptiness and sadness… and a desire to never see the film I’ve just watched ever again.
June 20th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
I’m just as hopeful. I feel like I should have stopped seeing his films years ago… but who knows, maybe someday he’ll come back around to Purple Rose of Cairo again.