Directed by Woody Allen. 109 minutes.
Starring Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Woody Allen, Stockard Channing, Jimmy Fallon, Adrien Grenier, and Danny DeVito. Released by Dreamworks Pictures.
“I have so many problems that suicide would not solve them all.”
- Jerry Falk
Jason Biggs is Jerry Falk, who is essentially Woody Allen. Kenneth Branagh did this once before in Celebrity and Woody has played himself close to twenty or so times as well. In Anything Else, the 33rd film directed by Allen, Woody plays himself, only as a raving lunatic. It’s pretty funny, believe me. In his fourth collaboration with Dreamworks Pictures, and second best of the bunch (Small Time Crooks is better), Allen’s latest film is, strangely enough, most reminiscent of Annie Hall, the film that put the director amongst the greats (though he went on to make a dozen more that helped him keep that status) and beat Star Wars for Best Picture. However, Anything Else is the demented sibling to the film it most borrows from and where Keaton’s Hall was, perhaps, one of the pinnacle female roles of the 1970s and object of affection for millions of men thereafter, Christina Ricci’s Amanda is, on the other hand, deranged.
Though at times the film strays into This Woman I Am Living With Is Impossible land, Anything Else is more about
Jerry Falk’s inability to assert himself and make decisions. Why you might ask
does Jerry continue to live with Amanda, who not only refuses to sleep with him
anymore, but sleeps with others to “see if she can still get excited?” He would
say that it is because of his fear of being alone. In several humorous scenes,
Jerry visits a shrink who is clearly no help at all. Therapy, instead, comes in
the form of David Dobel (Allen), a comedic invention only Woody could come up
with. Both aspiring comedians, though one is 21 and
the other 60 as Jerry notes, the two take walks around
The scene of comedic brilliance comes when we are both expecting and least expecting it. Allen, a man small in size and not exactly the scary type, has a brief fit of road rage as he and Jerry cruise the streets looking for a parking space. The entire audience cheered when he confronts two bullies that steal his parking space. It is screamingly funny. Similarly funny is when a hilarious Stockard Channing, as Amanda’s mother, decides to move in and take over Jerry’s apartment. Equally great is Dobel’s insistence on young Falk purchasing a survival kit, automatic weapon and compass included.
The material here does not always work; a problem that has somewhat plagued Allen’s previous two films, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Hollywood Ending, as well. Though I enjoyed those films, they were a bit scattershot. Problems in his latest include the breaking of the fourth wall by Jerry, which just doesn’t work. Some films can get away with their lead character talking directly to the camera. Unfortunately, this is not one of them. Also, Amanda’s character is peculiar up to the point where she feels like a movie creation. Strange characters in past Allen films did not feel that way.
However, the acting is mostly strong here, the jokes work
more so than not, and the film has some rather accomplished moments of insight.
Despite the fact that his films as of late have not been pulling in audiences
as they have in the past and despite the fact that his last few films have been
more charming and cute than classic Allen, going to see one of Woody’s films is
still an event for me. I have seen all 33 and am glad that the man still works
as hard as he does. There is something about Allen’s films that, despite if
they fall short of expectations at one time or another, they still have that sweetness, that charm, that insight into the craziness and
wonderfulness of life, that brilliant sense of humor, that wonderful use of
music, and Woody’s loving devotion to