Allen wrote the script almost 40 years ago, and then voluntarily shelved it because studios at the time expressed doubts about its quality. If it wasn’t good enough back then, why drag it out now?
Comment
10/14/09
Whatever Works (2009)
47
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:124
Fresh:58
Rotten:66
Average Rating:5.3/10
Consensus: Based upon a script written in the 1970s, Woody Allen's Whatever Works suffers from a lack of fresh ideas.
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Genre: Comedies
US Box Office: $5,183,644
Synopsis: The New York-based humor of Woody Allen and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIAM’s Larry David seems like a natural match, and the pair unite for the first time in this comedy. WHATEVER WORKS follows a rich man... [More]
Starring: Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley
Director: Woody Allen
Reviews for Whatever Works
1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating; Australian critics are listed first)
Top CriticWoody Allen’s supposedly undiscovered masterpiece is a complete failure, featuring a one-note performance from the usually hilarious Larry David.
10/13/09
Top CriticThe result is a stew that is not as satisfying as the gumbo which Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David) gets to enjoy
10/08/09
Top CriticIn the end, Whatever Works just about does work, though there’s an awkwardness about it that is never quite dispelled.
10/14/09
Top CriticFans of Allen's work should be happy to find him back in Manhattan, still exploring the meaning of his existence through some typically funny one-liners.
10/11/09
Top CriticVicious laughs and smart shots at our "enlightened" humanity abound, but a nasty current of misanthropy overpowers Woody' latest work.
10/11/09
Top CriticWhatever Works is funnier than anything he's done in a long time -- funny in the robust vaudevillian manner of Groucho Marx.
10/15/09
Top CriticI really enjoyed the film. It's not Allen's best and there is a theatricality that keeps us at arm's length; despite the highly successful direct to camera confidences, which are surprisingly endearing. Allen has knitted together a sweater of angst
10/08/09
Top CriticI actually quite enjoyed this, except this sort of constant rant: the contempt he has for humanity and yadda yadda yadda.
10/14/09
Top CriticStay home and rent one of Allen's better films.
06/26/09
My problem with Whatever Works is not that the premise is a wee bit familiar. Rather, it’s that the delivery is off.
06/19/09
Top CriticThe fact that the apartment set seems so stagebound, there's almost no pretense of pretending we're not on a set, makes the movie quite hollow and canned.
11/06/09
This toxic, contemptuous, unforgivably unfunny bagatelle finds Allen at his most misanthropically one-note.
07/02/09
Top CriticTen years after his great expectoration of bile in Deconstructing Harry, Woody Allen comes up with Whatever Works -- the most shameless, cynically titled Hollywood con job since the days of Billy Wilder.
06/17/09
I am a huge Woody Allen fan, but I had a hard time with Whatever Works.
06/27/09
Finally catching the feature on Blu-ray after taking an absurdly stubborn stance of protest this summer, I have to say with all honesty, Sony Pictures Classics probably made the right choice to pull the picture away from further negative response.
10/30/09
A more vibrant film than Allen's worst but the screenwriting mistakes and general misanthropy hold it back from being anywhere near his best.
06/26/09
If anyone else had made this unromantic comedy, they'd be accused of ripping off Manhattan. Since it was made by Allen, let's just accuse him of not having many fresh ideas in the past three decades.
07/03/09
The working title for Whatever Works should have been 'The Heart Wants What it Wants.
07/03/09
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.
06/18/09
Top CriticLatest News for Whatever Works
June 18, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Year One Fails To Beget Laughs
This week at the movies, we've got Biblical bloopers (Year One, starring Jack Black and Michael Cera) and an engagement of convenience (The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock and... More...
May 10, 2009:
Trailer Bulletin: Whatever Works 
Larry David steps in as Woody Allen's latest on-screen surrogate in "Whatever Works," due out June 19. Watch the trailer now! More...
May 10, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review
More...
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