Whatever Works review

Whatever Works (12A, 91 mins)
Director: Woody Allen

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Larry David plays the latest surrogate for Woody Allen to carp about death and the miseries of life for 90 minutes. David is physicist Boris, a deeply unpleasant man who’s middle aged, divorced and hates the world and everyone in it. But when he unexpectedly takes in a young runaway (Evan Rachel Wood), he finds himself beginning to soften. Like a lot of Allen’s work in recent years, there’s a sheen of bitterness here barely tempered by any discernible warmth or wit. Most irritatingly he throws up continual reminders of his best films; the to-camera narration of Annie Hall, the age gap romance of Manhattan that only serve to highlight this film’s flaws. But it’s not entirely without chuckles and Boris’ misanthropy almost becomes endearing, so though it’s by no means vintage Woody, he’s made a lot worse in recent years.