365 Films A Year!

Viewed March 28, 2006

Anything Else is something of a return to form for Woody Allen. A hallmark of his more recent work has been a certain looseness in his style. Both his camera work and scripts have been much less precise than they were in the past. Anything Else may not stand up to the best of Allen’s output, but it’s solid structure and execution give it a cohesiveness that many of his more recent works have lacked.

This time around, Allen basically takes his standard ‘Woody Allen’ character and splits him in two. First, there is Jerry Falk, played by Jason Biggs. Jerry’s attempts to deal with his erratic girlfriend Amanda (Christina Ricci) is the focus of the film. Biggs does a good job with the material, projecting Allen’s nebbishisms effectively. He gets off a lot of good jokes and makes Jerry sympathetic. It’s not quite as strong a realization of the character type as John Cusack in Bullets Over Broadway (1994), but it’s one of the best faux-Woody Allens we’ve seen in a while.

Biggs would probably come off even more impressively if he weren’t outclassed by the other Woody Allen-type in Anything Else, Jerry’s mentor David Dobel, played by Allen himself. While Jerry is classic Allen, young and unsure of himself, Dobel is the older Allen, still unsure, but also cynical. Allen gives himself all the best lines in Anything Else and gets the most of them. It’s a classic Allen performance, only let down by appearing in a film with less going for it than Allen’s older works.

The rest of the cast does a pretty good job, unfortunately, without really shining. Christina Ricci’s Amanda, the cause of Jerry’s troubles, is too much of a characature. She is never allowed to blossom into a full person. Ricci does well with the material, especially when she exudes the intense sensuality that first attracts Jerry. But she just doesn’t get much more to work with.

Stockard Channing has a nice turn as Amanda’s mother, charging through her life (and others’) like a bull in a china shop. Danny DeVito gives a nice little performance as Jerry’s manager Harvey. Somewhat reminiscent of Woody Allen’s Broadway Danny Rose (although less appealing), DeVito certainly makes the most of him.

The most surprising thing about Anything Else as far as I was concerned was it’s strong focus on the Jerry-Dobel relationship. All the advertising made it seem like this was a standard lighthearted romantic comedy about young people. Although that is certainly an important part of the film, it’s really secondary to Jerry’s tale of coming to terms with his own life.

I really liked Anything Else. As I stated earlier, it doesn’t reach the levels of Allen’s earlier work, but it is well structured, well cast and has a solid script. The performances are generally good and it never comes off as false. Certainly a worthy effort.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 3rd, 2006 at 3:28 pm and is filed under 2003, 365 Films Award Winners, Comedy, Romance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.