Anything Else Review
by Mark R. Leeper (markrleeper AT yahoo DOT com)September 25th, 2003
ANYTHING ELSE
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Woody Allen's ANYTHING ELSE is mildly
amusing, but that still makes it the best film
he has made in a while. A younger version of
Allen is manipulated and dominated by the people
around him, all sending contradictory messages.
The movie is a little slow toward the middle,
but its point is made by the end. Rating: 6
(0 to 10), high +1 (-4 to +4)
I will give Woody Allen credit. For decades he has been experimenting with different genres. That makes him a constant neophyte against more seasoned directors for each of these kinds of films. In the last decade he has tried a musical, a pulp adventure, a murder mystery, and several other films varying his approach. But his misses have been far more common than his hits. In ANYTHING ELSE he returns to his home genre. He is telling a story about the neurotic intellectual trying to iron out his love life and his life in general, much has he did with ANNIE HALL. He is telling a story about a nebbish who can talk intelligently about Sartre at parties, but who is a complete jerk in his love life. It is familiar territory for Allen, but this time he seems to be making a real point and though the success is mild, the film is at least likable.
Woody Allen plays a supporting role as his usual disturbed character, but that character is not the main focus. He has another actor playing the confused, trademarked insecure Jewish intellectual schlemiel. Jason Biggs (who plays Jim Levinstein in the AMERICAN PIE films) here plays Jerry Falk, a comedy writer and aspiring novelist. Jerry sees the sultry (?) Amanda, played by Christina Ricci, and immediately decides that he must have her. This is in spite of the fact she is the current girlfriend of one of Jerry's friends and that he is already in a relationship. Once he has won her, he finds that it is really a high-maintenance relationship. Amanda is self-obsessed and selfish, but she knows how to talk her way around Jerry so that she gets what she wants.
Actually Jerry has several people manipulating him at the same time. There is his friend David Dobel (Woody Allen), another comedy writer who has decided to latch onto and train Jerry with life lessons and survivalist skills. Jerry's agent and manager is Harvey (Danny DeVito) who has quietly upped his percentage to 25% and does not seem to be doing much for Jerry at all. Jerry also has an analyst who never says anything at all useful to Jerry. But in each of these relationships Jerry wants to be a nice guy and cannot tell these people that he is getting nothing nourishing out of his relationship with each of them. There is a nice subplot showing Dobel has inner fires eating at him, somewhat atypical of an Allen role. He hears slights in other people's comments that nobody else hears. He can give in to moments of shocking violence. And he feels anybody living in the city needs to keep a loaded gun handy. Dobel pulls Jerry in one direction; Amanda pulls him in another. And Amanda's delinquent mother Paula (Stockard Channing) moves in and makes her own demands on Jerry.
The big fault with the script is that once we get to the middle act the story does little to develop. There are worse things in life than listening to Woody Allen dialog, but even with that the viewer get impatient. The film's middle makes the same point repeatedly: that each of these relationships seems to be doing nothing for Jerry. The psychiatrist does nothing at all, he agent makes excuses, Dobel gives bad advice, and Amanda does exclusively what she wants to do and gives Jerry excuses that that doing so is good for their relationship. One can easily see and--even more hear--a younger Woody Allen in the role of Jerry. The young comedy writer talks in Allen-like language and even seems to think like Allen. He makes little comments aside to the camera in much the same way that Allen does in films like MANHATTAN. The story is building to a nice ironic twist, but it takes longer than need be to get there. ANYTHING ELSE does work, but it is not nearly so ambitious as Allen's work of fifteen years ago. After his CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS he seems to have lost his way.
While this is really only a shadow of what Woody Allen has given us in the past, it has some substance and is better than any film Allen has given us in a long disappointing period. I give ANYTHING ELSE a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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Copyright 2003 Mark R. Leeper
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
