Day 82- Movie 79. Whatever Works (2009)

I guess I should start this out by saying I'm not the biggest Woody Allen fan. I don't hate him- I think he has made some very solid movies throughout his career. However, I also get annoyed with him pretty quickly. His movies are too similar, and I hate when he plays the same neurotic character over and over again. I just lose patience with him and his movies. So, I respect him when he makes good films, but I can be hard on him when his movies miss the mark (which happens too often).

That being said, I wasn't a huge fan of Whatever Works. The script was an old one Woody Allen wrote years ago, but never made it into a movie. Because of the writer's strike a few years ago, he decided to dust it off. That's exactly what this movie felt like to me- an old idea spruced up just a bit for modern audiences. It felt weak on almost every level.

I don't mind Larry David, but I certainly don't love him, either. I didn't like him much here, partially because I felt certain Allen wrote this role for himself. I could see Allen's neurotic mumbling and worldview in every second of David's performance, and I didn't like it much. I get that he's supposed to be a negative, unlikable character, but I just grew so tired of him. He's fine in small doses, but he wore on me the longer the film went on.

I can't say that any part of this movie really angered me or made me hate it. I didn't feel any of those strong emotions. Instead, I just felt like the entire film was completely inconsequential. It was so hard to care about anything that happened in the entire film. I've always believed every movie can teach you a lesson, but this is one that you had to work a bit to take a lesson away. I didn't have fun watching this movie. Yes, I thought a little and laughed a few times, but there was just so very little that was entertaining here. It was a movie devoid of enjoyment.

Whatever Works may be fun for Woody Allen or Larry David fans, but I just don't see much here to appeal to wider audiences. I'm not surprised that audiences generally stayed away from this film (it made just over $5 million)- why would you pay money to watch something like this? I don't get it. I'll give this movie a 5.5/10.

Well, this concludes my movie watching for the weekend. I did make up some more ground, but not as much as I wanted. I wanted to do 2 movies Friday, 3 Saturday, and 4 Sunday. That would have netted me +6, putting me only 2 off pace. Unfortunately, that just didn't happen today. I'm three movies behind, instead of two. That's not the end of the world, but it hurts because I have to make up that movie later.

It looks like I'm in pretty good shape, but that may be somewhat misleading. I have 18 days to watch 21 movies, but I don't really have 18 days. I could lose 4 days where I'll just be too busy to watch even a single film. So, I definitely still have time, but I need to stay focused on my goal. That being said, I'm cooked for tonight. I'm going to crawl into bed and try to not think about movies.