Aguirre, our lost spy ever in search for that golden treasure of a film, found just that in Woody Allen's latest triumph DECONSTRUCTING HARRY (now if that ain't a pitiful attempt to kissing up to me, I don't know what is)! Many brave cinema conquistadors died along the way at screenings of such travesties as Mortal Kombat 2 and The Postman. But from the descriptions given here, I get the idea that some conquistadors may be brought back from the dead to resume the neverending holy quest.
(WARNING THE FOLLOWING REVIEW DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!)
Saw the new Woody Allen film, Deconstructing Harry, yesterday. It opens Christmas Day. Damn, is it funny. Super funny. I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, but there are a few here so WATCH OUT MAN!!!
The story revolves around Harry (Allen), who's a real bastard. Allen said that he wanted to call the film "The meanest man in the world." Fitting title. Typical Allen films have a healthy dose of neurosis, but Deconstructing Harry comes close to overloading on it. This time, he's neurotic about, among other things, sex. This ain't no "Everything you always wanted to know about sex...", though.
In the story, Allen is a writer whose novels are thinly veiled (VERY thinly veiled) descriptions of his own tumultous life. In the process of publishing the novels, he has basically ostracized everyone who has every cared about him. He uses them, and doesn't give a second thought to how they might feel or how his writing might effect them. Consequently he breaks up marriages, relationships are ended, and no one likes Harry. He's a jerk.
Doesn't sound like much fun, but shit, it is. The undertone of seriousness is there, but almost everything is played for laughs. Harry's sex life consists of hookers, bondage, and lots of oral sex. Damn, there's more oral sex in this flick than a porno (that's not a criticism). It's almost like like Allen got bit by Kevin Smith and now it's okay for him to talk completely frank about sex. Ha ha, Kevin Smith bitting Woody Allen. There's a funny picture...but anyway...
It's big cast, and here's the clinker- for every cast member in the "real world", there's a doppleganger in the reality of Harry's stories, which are played out throughout the film. In addition to that, some of Harry's other stories are acted out as he speaks to his psychologist. Eventually, real world Harry meets some of his fantasy world characters. Confusing to read about, but it makes sense when you see it.
All the fantasy world encounters are very funny. In one, a younger Harry gets together with a hooker only to have the angel of death come knocking at his door. Literally. Young Allen- "My name's not Melvin, really", Angel of Death-"Don't give me that bullshit, you're coming with me." Great dialouge. In another, Robin Williams is an actor who is out of focus, again literally. Neat ILM effects, but the scene is too damn short. In another, Harry goes to hell to retrieve his girlfriend from Billy Crystal's devil (not Crystals own personal devil, but Crystal as devil). Pretty cool set, big and full of fire and breasts. One of the super awesome funny segments, though, is the Star Wars theme'd Bar Mitzvah. Darth Vader center pieces, women dressed as Leia, a band with Vader helmets on, boys with light sabers, waiters dressed as Chewbacca (gold lamme jackets, black pants...and big hairy Chewie masks. Damn, that's some funny shit- if Joe Hallenback can say a few f'ers, I can say a few shits). And in the middle of all of this, two old jewish women having a very funny conversation that leads to a revelation that is completely funny nasty gross crazy insane.
The whole cast is great, if a bit underused. There's a lot of big names here, but most don't get much more than fleeting screen time. Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Amy Irving, Elizabeth Shue, Mariel Hemingway, and Julie Kavner are all good but have way small parts, although Dreyfus's first scene is classic. Not going to give it away, but it involves oral sex and onions and an old lady. Demi Moore is very good as a penitent jewish wife, but her scenes are few. Kirstie Allie, as one of Allen's three ex-wifes, is fantastic. It might be the same rants from cheers but with more cursing, but everyone in the theater was dying when she started going off.
As for the guys, Stanley Tucci, Eric Bogdasian, Richard Benjamin...all are good. Bogdasian is in like three seconds of film though. Seriously. Really, everyone in the film kicks ashe. Allen isn't going to let anyone hack around, and everyone here has done comedy before. Funny, actually- Moore handles her comic scenes much better than her serious ones. Good jazz soundtrack. Some mainstream, some obscure, but it all fits in perfectly with the filmmaking... ...and as far as that goes, Allen continues to try new things. Here, he goes against the big no-no and uses a lot of jump cuts. Strange at first, but it really does fit the film. Sounds weird, but the jerky cuts are the perfect metaphor for Harry's discombobulated life and broken relatioships. He's a man who can't love or really connect with anyone else, and the jump cuts convey that sense of loss and incompletion.
Funniest Allen movie yet? I don't know, Bananas was pretty funny, Sleeper was great...but man, Deconstructing Harry is absolutey hilarious. Some flaws, yes- the character of the black hooker Allen gets with, and I unfortunately don't have the name of the actress, has got one great line but aside from that is boring and too matriarcal for her own good. It's just too easy to have her as the one to enlighten Allen. Too deus ex machinas for me baby. And having such a big cast of big stars shouts way to much of actors yelling "I want to be in a Woody Allen movie no matter how small the part." Very good balance of material, yes, but personally I'd have liked to see more out of the scenes mentioned earlier.
But aside from that stuff, the movie is absolutely hilarious. Super, super funny. Funniest Allen yet...that's saying a lot, but this one just might be.
MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNN, I'm there. First off any cool flick with my name in the title is a must see. THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, etc etc etc... Second of all it's WOODY ALLEN which means by law all cine-geeks must sit there alone in the theater or with the lamest attempt at a date and watch the funniest auteur director working in film today. And THIRD for us special effects geeks there are actually SPECIAL FX!!!!! So I'm there. Been in love with Woody since he rewrote all the dialogue for that old chinese film. Can't wait to see this baby, what a Christmas!!!
