FFWD Weekly
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Deconstruction time again
Woody lightens up and is funny again
Reviewed by Richard ZywotkiewiczDECONSTRUCTING HARRY
Directed by Woody Allen
Starring Woody Allen, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Judy Davis and Demi Moore
Opens Friday, December 26
PlazaThere are 85 speaking parts in Woody Allen's latest film, Deconstructing Harry, which revolves around the problems of a New York writer's creative and erotic life. The ensemble cast, Allen's first choice in every case, is superb. Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Demi Moore, and Allen vets Judy Davis and Mariel Hemingway are a few of the many exceptional performers. Allen really knows how to extract the best from all those he works with.
On the down side, the film opens with Allen trying redundant and tiresome gimmicks and comic gags. The jump cuts, repeated images, flashes and roving camera technique is an embarrassing attempt to stylistically symbolize his protagonist's fragmented personality and life. The seduction scene which opens the film is contrived and predictable. But, if you can get through the first 15 minutes, the film suddenly takes off.
Deconstructing Harry is Woody Allen's own private 8 1/2. Like the infamous Fellini film, it is the prolific filmmaker's attempt at dissecting, analyzing and, of course, deconstructing the real Allen within the context of his fictitious alter ego. If art reflects life, then according to Allen, he has suddenly arrived at writer's block and no longer believes he has anything to write about. In view of the many stale past efforts by Allen, one would almost expect this to be true.
However, this film is genuinely funny - hysterical in places - and has more than its share of original cinematic gimmicks that work. Allen was once a ground-breaking filmmaker whose comic imagination was fresh and unique. The personified Grim Reaper and Allen's own version of Dante's Inferno are the type of guilty pleasures one would expect from Woody, but there are moments that are reminiscent of the brilliance achieved in ancient efforts such as Zelig and Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask). Truthfully, Allen is best when he's being funny and here the humor is more than just an embellishment to his own particular melodrama.
There are more than a few guffaws in Deconstructing Harry and it makes one believe this director is finally arriving at a point where he is not taking his work, and his life so seriously.
In the case of this humongous ego, artistic masturbation has finally led to an orgasm.
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