Anything Else: Movie Review, DVD Review (2003)

(Originally published 2003)

Written and directed by Woody Allen, 108 minutes, rated R.

The best thing about the new Woody Allen comedy, "Anything Else," is that it's indeed a comedy, filled with the sort of sharp, dirty laughs and biting observations on life, love and sex for which the director, in his youth, was once fearlessly known.

This isn't Allen at his best, but compared to the recent spate of comedies cluttering cineplexes, it stands apart, a smart, welcome reprieve from the depressing likes of "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star" and the bogus slop of "My Boss's Daughter."

Consider it a familiar, greatest hits compendium from Allen, with young, popular actors playing the roles he and Diane Keaton played before them in "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan."

If the director seems more out of touch here than ever, somehow believing that dropping names like Camus, Sartre and Dostoevsky can fuel a punchline with the teen audiences he's now courting, it’s because he remains wholly unconnected to the current pop culture scene.

Some will find that understandable, while others will find it lazy and mildly annoying. Still, what remains solid is Allen's insights into relationships, which are sharp, and especially his dialogue, which is as funny as ever (“A literate actress? What’s that? Like finding a four-leaf clover?”).

In the movie, Jason Biggs ("American Pie") is Jerry Falk, an enterprising comedy writer whose relationship with the neurotic actress Amanda (Christina Ricci) is about to hit the skids in spite of Jerry's tireless attempts to right its course.

They live together, but they haven't consummated their relationship in six months, which bothers the spineless Jerry far more than it does the tough, hard-knocks Amanda, a smoky minx with an impervious air who encourages Jerry to "sleep with other women--just don't tell me about it."

Frustrated, angry and more than a trace worried, Jerry pours out his heart to his psychiatrist (William Hill), whose silence only compounds his frustration, and also to his friend and fellow comedy writer Dobel (Allen), who immediately concludes that Amanda is cheating on him.

Is she? As the film unfolds, an acidic examination of young, incompatible love ensues, with the nebbish Biggs holding his own opposite the likes of Ricci, whose performance recalls all the restless, tight-fisted pluck of a young Bette Davis; Danny DeVito as Jerry's desperate and ineffective business manager, Harvey; and Stockard Channing as Amanda's interloping, pill-popping, cocaine-snorting mother, Paula.

In typical Allen form, all are allowed their show-stopping ways with the screen.

Over the past several years, Allen's more recent films--"Hollywood Ending," "Curse of the Jade Scorpion," "Small Time Crooks," "Sweet and Lowdown" and "Celebrity"--have been unfairly undervalued and, in turn, underseen. Despite a disappointing, $1.7 million showing at last weekend's box office, "Anything Else" seems destined to realize the same fate, which is a shame. This lively, nostalgic comedy is more worthwhile than most and it deserves a shot with audiences.

Grade: B+

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