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Whatever Works
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 30 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 50 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Romance
Written by: Woody Allen
Directed by: Woody Allen
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 19, 2009
DVD: October 27, 2009
Running Time: 92 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for sexual situations including dialogue, brief nude images and thematic material
Starring Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Begley Jr., Patricia Clarkson, Henry Cavill, Kristen Johnston, and Michael McKean
Woody Allen returns to New York with an offbeat comedy about a crotchety misanthrope and a naïve, impressionable young runaway from the south. When her uptight parents, arrive to rescue her, they are quickly drawn into wildly unexpected romantic entanglements. Everyone discovers that finding love is just a combination of lucky chance and appreciating the value of Whatever Works. (Sony Classics)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Time Richard Corliss
No kidding: this is the feel-good movie of the year and a cinematic soul massage.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Yellnikoff, played with perfect pitch by Larry David.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
What makes Whatever Works so enjoyable, aside from the unusually high number of effective one-liners the script contains (this is Allen's funniest movie since Mighty Aphrodite), are its supporting characters.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Easily one of the loosest, most satisfying comedies to hail from the prolific writer/director in a while.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
At one and the same time it feels like a decent-but-not-great film of his '70s period and a perky and tart entry in his modestly successful revival in the last half-decade. Neat trick.
Read Full Review >New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott
Ends up being a pleasantly surprising blast from the past, a delightful and amusing touchstone to Allen's comedic prime.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
It's a slight-but-enjoyable effort, and it features something a little on the surprising side: an optimistic ending.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Though Clarkson acquits herself reasonably well in a terribly conceived role, her entrance interrupts David’s hilariously twisted mentorship of Wood and sends the movie careening in a far less promising direction.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Whatever Works feels like something out of time and, worse, out of step. Hell, Allen wrote the script back in the 1970s for Zero Mostel.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
Features enough genuine laughs to give it decent commercial traction.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
There was always a dreaminess in his vision of the city, but now it feels as distant as the polished floors and the Deco furnishings of the Fred Astaire movies that Boris finds--of course--whenever he turns on the TV.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The fact that Allen wrote the script in the '70s explains something about why his newest movie feels so old.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Woody, please: Go back to the European locales that so energized you of late.
Read Full Review >Variety Ronnie Scheib
This far-fetched, deliberately artificial game of musical chairs -- in which mismatched characters encircle, attract and repel each other -- feels forced, often losing itself in excess verbiage.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
It's hard to get past the primitiveness of Allen’s fantasies.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
As Whatever Works creaks along, the attention-getting nastiness of the first half dissipates and it turns into just another Woody Allen overacted sex farce. Of all the insults hurled about in the film, perhaps the worst is its pandering conclusion. What exactly does Allen take his audience for? A bunch of mindless zombies?
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The result is Allen's weakest film in years.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Whatever Works is very minor Woody, querulous, fitfully funny, and removed from any shared reality.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
While the film is slightly better than similar efforts Allen made between the ’90s and his recent time in Europe, it’s both too broad and too shallow.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
A sour romantic comedy, only sporadically amusing.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
A belabored trifle that's occasionally amusing but often just bewildering.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
Most disheartening of all is that, after shooting four films in a row abroad, Allen seems to have lost his feel for New York locations.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
How big a bastard can Woody Allen build a screenplay around and still generate a modicum of audience goodwill? The answer: not this big.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Whether you want to trace this romance back to "La Strada" or Allen's marriage to Soon-Yi Previn is your business, but on-screen it never registers as more than a writer's conceit.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The movie on the whole is joyless. Whatever Works doesn’t.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
"Hello, I Must Be Going," sings Groucho Marx in a clip from "Animal Crackers" at the start of the film. If I'd known what followed, I would have followed his advice.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
This toxic, contemptuous, unforgivably unfunny bagatelle finds Allen at his most misanthropically one-note.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.8 (out of 10) based on 50 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
margarita r gave it a10:
I enjoyed every minute.
Kathleen Cm gave it an8:
Time's review is correct, it is a life affirming film and very funny.
Soon Y gave it a1:
Extremely poor self-indulgent film. There is no "philosophy" - it's just justification as to why an old man (Woody) can use the life of a naive, lost youngster (Soon Yi) and then rationalize the bad, selfish, hedonistic behavior. The critics were dead on accurate. This film should just be titled "the whole world is an orgy of infidelity, just relax and enjoy." The on stage move to camera was ridiculous and doesn't work. The story is absurdly predictable. I give it a 1 for the fact that it had a few funny lines but that is it. People are dumber than a bag of bricks and if Larry David is in it and it has a few lines, then it's "genius." I got it. Go rent a porno and you'll be more satisfied than this tripe.
Ruby G gave it a9:
Loved the movie. We saw it in N.Y. and can't figure out why it hasn't played in the S.F. Bay Area.
murray r gave it a9:
I loved the film, and so did the audience judging the way they applauded at the end.
Christian B. gave it a10:
Deep philosophy hidden behind superficial humor. Great actors. One of the best American films I watched recently. Meets European quality on acting, while telling an American story.
Richard G. gave it a9:
One of his best works in a decade. A sweet, funny movie that is a great follow-up to Vicky Christina Barcelona. A pure celebration of life. I really am loving his new direction in comedy. Two very good films in a row. (The later even better than the first). Evan Rachel Wood performance is impeccable and to my surprise Larry David exceeded my expectations, and was a joy to watch.
