WOODY ALLEN'S "WHATEVER WORKS"

Opens June 19th in NY and LA!

Go See WHATEVER WORKS

If you love Woody Allen AND really love his 'early movies when Woody was really funny,' as Groucho Marx is claimed to have said, then get in line opening night and see WHATEVER WORKS.

This movie could be a missing film from his 70's oeuvre. It feels like ANNIE HALL and has warm echoes of MANHATTAN. Maybe it's because Woody Allen wrote this in the 70s for the great comic genius Zero Mostel to play. The script has been updated and includes references to Obama but the soul of the movie is from Woody's golden age.

It's the long lost sister to that period.

If you love, love Larry David you will love him in this.

Even if you don't love Larry David, the character Woody has written for him, and David's remarkable performance will fascinate you.

Patricia Clarkson's character is a marvelous surprise. Her performance is pitch perfect and Woody has written a hysterical transformation for her. Watching this strict southern Baptist be seduced and transformed by the New York Art Scene with the help of Larry David's bohemian buddies, the two slightly decadent, libertine New York artists played by Michael McKean, Conleth Hill, is a delight.

But for me, the surprise in this movie is Evan Rachel Wood.

She is the most refreshing, unusual Woody Allen Femme lead since Diane Keaton. She is beautiful, alluringly innocent, sexy, quirky, and charmingly simple.

In my opinion most male lead actors in Woody's movies act like Woody Allen and talk in the cadence of Woody Allen. And women, even the great Mia Farrow, are imitations of Diane Keaton in my experience. This observation reminds me that first and foremost, actors are mimics.

But Rachel was so natural and unusual that I wondered where the characterization came from. I'd previously heard that Woody doesn't direct 'Characterization'. Meaning, he's not there in rehearsal helping you find the inner soul and motivation of the character.

With Woody, you say the lines.

So I asked her how much of the Character was formed before she arrived on the film set; or perhaps had she found it rehearsing for hours on her own with Larry and Patricia.

Rachel replied: " I'm from the south. I based her on my stepmother slightly (not IQ wise) - just that sweet southern hospitality, seeing the good in everything. It was hard."

"I didn't want her to be annoying, I wanted her to be endearing. I wanted her accent to be right because I'm southern, and it would drive us crazy if it 's wrong. It just happened."

Patricia Clarkson added: "And Woody wanted us to have very prominent southern accents."

Rachel continued: "Yeah that was like the main direction - 'BROAD SOUTHERN! - you should be in a potato sack in bare feet'... what ever that means", She laughed.

"So I did the best I could."

"Once you get that hair going, the nails and the outfit, it's hard not to become a different person."

"The tan was the hardest part."

Well I graciously beg to differ with Rachel. Many of Woody's Women have put on the hair, make up and nails and never arrive at a performance this disarmingly original. But when an actress like Rachel states: "It just happened," it's an indication you're observing a brilliant intuitive artist. Someone we will enjoy watching for years.

This film is a departure from her earlier dramatic roles, which brought her to the attention of movie lovers.

I now want to see everything she does and everything she's done.

But I must reiterate that WHATEVER WORKS is filled with wonderfully funny, inventive performances and Woody has written scenes and situations for his characters that had me laughing out loud for much of the movie.

Go see it. Even stand in line.

On my STAND IN THE LINE METER, this film rates a:

"Standing in the Rain"

Which, if you're new to us means: See it if you have to stand in the rain. (which you won't because it's summer! Oh wait, there are Global warming storms, sigh) . . . Which is another great reason to see this fabulous film. We all need a good long laugh.

Tony Greco

Screenwriters Online

screenwriter.com

insider AT screenwriter.com

Note: If we can get a copy of the screenplay, We'll spend an entire evening on

this movie. The writing is wonderful.

Here's the brief Synopsis off the Sony Classics Site.

An eccentric New Yorker played by Larry David abandons his upper class life to lead a more bohemian existence. He meets a young girl from the south and her family and no two people seem to get along in the entanglements that follow.

This is a comedy also starring Ed Begley Jr., Patricia Clarkson, Conleth Hill, Michael McKean Evan Rachel Wood, and a number of other amusing types.

Here's the link for more pics, trailers, links etc.

http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/whateverworks/