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Mini Movie Review:
The good news is that Woody Allen's trademark quips and bon mots are back in this movie in which he plays the mentor to
a younger version of himself. Jason Biggs "American Pie," 1999) is surprisingly good as a young Woody Allen wannabe
comedian who is also seeing a therapist. Also, New York City and, especially, Central Park, are lovingly portrayed in this
movie by this life long confirmed Manhattanite.
The bad news is that there is no grounded character in "Anything Else," someone like Alan Alda (who has starred
in at least three Woody Allen movies), with whom the off-the-wall Allen and Biggs might reflect themselves to greater eccentric
and comedic glory. Furthermore, Allen's role consists of a man who has descended into a Semitic form of gun owning paranoid
survivalism. While Dobel's comments about relationships are often bitingly funny, his comments about Auschwitz and living
in an anti-Semitic world as a paranoid Jew push the envelope on what is acceptable humor.
Finally, the two major female roles in this movie, played by Christina Ricci and Stockard Channing, are so unlikable and
so mean spirited as to cast a misogynistic pall over the entire movie. There is no cute but flaky Diane Keaton here to help
ground Biggs in an oddball kind of way in his personal relationship. Ricci's Amanda, in an admittedly brilliantly portrayed
role, is self-centered, self absorbed, cruel, manipulative, dishonest, irresponsible and totally myopic when it comes to excusing
her own personal actions. I cannot recall a meaner, more loathsome woman in any of Allen's other films.
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MOVIE CRITIQUE:
I have always loved Woody Allen movies. He has made some very funny movies, and in "Anything Else" his David
Dobel comes back to his comedies of old with Allen throwing off one very funny quip after another in his father/mentor relationship
with a young, aspiring fellow comedy writer named Jerry Falk (Jason Biggs).
Neither "The Return of the Jade Scorpion"(2001) or "Hollywood Ending"(2002) were successful at the
box office, although I liked the latter much better for Tea Leoni's brilliant performance. (And where has she been lately?).
I doubt that this movie will be much of a success with its low TomatoMeter rating of 41%, which means that 6 out of 10 critics
have panned this movie.
That being said, there are many laughs in this movie between David Dobel in his role as mentor to Jerry Falk as they spend
many days together wandering through Central Park during lunch hour. However, it should be mentioned that Allen's quips are
a little more biting as Dobel happens to be a paranoid survivalist gun nut.
In addition, much of his commentary, as funny as it is, involves putting down everyone else in the young Falk's life from
his therapist, Dr. Bob Styles (Jimmy Fallon), to his agent, Harvey (Danny DeVito), to his girlfriend, Amanda (Christina Ricci),
to her cynical, mean spirited mother, Paula (Stockard Channing), who moves into Falk's small apartment and does her best to
ruin his relationship with her daughter.
The fact that he is right and that all of Jerry Falk's other relationships are toxic only slightly mutes the sharp edge
of Dobel's witty and sarcastic comments.
But it is in Allen's visualization of the character of Amanda that sinks this movie from Allen's normal comedic norm.
I'm not saying that Christina Ricci is bad in this role. Far from it; she is almost too good in this role. In fact, Ricci
is absolutely brilliant in portraying the role of Amanda. The problem is that she is SO good that she is painful to watch.
Jerry Falk, like Allen, is basically a nice guy who, because he is so nice, is highly susceptible to users. Worse yet, he
hates to live alone, so the girl of the moment, in this case Amanda, is always invited to move in with him.
Obviously, he is not very discriminating when it comes to his personal relationships, because he dumps a very nice girl,
Diane Krall, to take up a torrid affair with Amanda. She starts off very cute and quirky and ends up personifying toxicity.
Amanda dumps her current boyfriend on the spot, as does Jason, although with considerably more pain as he is not very good
at breaking up.
Amanda starts off being inconsiderate, like showing up an hour late for dinner at an exclusive restaurant that is reluctantly
holding their reservations. This turns Jerry into a primo grade A schmuck because he does the gentlemanly thing by waiting
out on the street for her cab to show up. Unfortunately, it is pouring rain and when she finally does arrive he is cold and
wet and soaked to the bone. Worse yet, she has compulsively eaten junk food just before leaving the apartment and is now no
longer hungry.
Does Jerry take this as a hint? No, he loves her all the more. Ascribing her thoughtlessness and irresponsibility to a
lovable quirkiness is generosity to the extreme on his part.
Jerry hates cigarette smokes. What do you want to bet that Amanda smokes?
Amanda's mother, Paula (Stockard Channing), soon also moves into Jerry's small, one bedroom apartment after her breakup
because Amanda manipulates Jerry into taking her in. She doesn't want her mother "sleeping on the streets."
Paula, it turns out, is an aspiring cabaret singer who quickly moves a piano into the apartment so that she can practice
her singing. Not well, of course. And she is inspired to practice in the morning, which is the prime time for the work-at-home
Jerry to be writing his comedy material in the next room. Now he has to put up with all the screeching and the off tune plunking
of the piano keys in the very next room.
Paula is bitter, cynical, resentful, selfish, and annoying with a voice that grates like chalk on a blackboard. Worse
than her daughter, Paula has no redeeming qualities that are exhibited in this film. She's just the mother from hell. Like
mother, like daughter, but Jerry still doesn't make this very annoying connection.
Then Amanda cuts Jerry off from sex, but she refuses to talk about it. It takes Dobel to warn him that she must be having
an affair, but Jerry is still too loyal to Amanda to believe this. Amanda keeps manipulating Jerry by proclaiming her love
for him, but even a trip to their formally romantic hotel room ends up a sexual disaster as Amanda has a panic attack and
has to be rushed to the nearest emergency room.
Like all nice men, Jerry is too weak and too hungry for sex and, most of all, too afraid of being alone to read the writing
on the wall. And his shrink is no help either because the guy never says anything. He just sits there like a sponge and sucks
up every word that Jerry utters (along with a lot of his money) without ever offering any sort of a professional opinion in
return. So Jerry is left with little more than hoping in vain for better times to come in his relationship with Amanda.
Only Dobel knows better and continues to press Jerry into dumping all of his toxic and manipulative relationships. This
means, in actuality, ALL of his relationships, as none that we see are normal.
It is only at the end of the movie when Falk meets Connie (Erica Leerhsen), that he finally finds someone who would be
perfect for him. Only by now it is too late as he is on his way to a new job in California.
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