In the end, Whatever Works just about does work, though there’s an awkwardness about it that is never quite dispelled.
Comment
10/14/09
Whatever Works (2009)
47
%
Tomatometer
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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
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 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 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 CriticAllen 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?
10/14/09
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 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 Critic"Whatever Works" is Boris Yellnikoff's personal motto. It works for him, for his rag-tag friends, and best of all, for the audience, too.
06/11/09
Approaches the line that's ever-present in Allen's films dividing funny misanthropy from sour misanthropy, and tramples all over it.
06/29/09
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.
06/17/09
It’s no secret that I am a lifelong Woody Allen fan.
06/22/09
It’s consistently very funny, sharp and observant.
06/22/09
Consider our enthusiasm curbed.
07/03/09
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.
06/18/09
Whatever Works makes more of a demand on a viewer's willingness to suspend disbelief than movies about vampires or giant robots.
07/03/09
In this return to Manhattan - and to his old tricks - Woody Allen finds a perfect representative in Larry David.
06/18/09
Whatever Works would have only worked if its director had written his trademark self-caricature out of it.
06/25/09
For now, [Allen] has given up making films that are about anything bigger than a quirky theme and a few dozen one-liners.
06/19/09
Latest 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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