Anything Else

Rating:
Summary: Anything Else Not So Bad
Review: Its not classic Woody but its actually not that bad. Biggs and Ricci are actually quite good as re-vamped and modern Annie Hall-esque characters. Woody is as funny and quirky as ever and the music is great. Not classic but good.

Rating:
Summary: Not Vintage Woodman, but durable fun for Allan fans
Review: I am a devoted fan of Woody Allen's movies, and I am prepared to believe his films, even his very best, are not to everyone's tastes. What a predisposition to like Allen's movies buys me is the willingness to give this movie a second chance if it does not appeal to me on first viewing. And, I can honestly say that this movie has one of the very best qualities of any movie, in that it actually improves as you watch it for a second and third time.

Since Allen is famous for doing parodies of major dramatic genres, from 1930s German impressionism of `Shadows and Fog' to Renaissance fantasy in `A Midsummer's Night Sex Comedy', so my first reaction to this movie was that it too was primarily a parody of modern light comedy, but it is not. The saying about taking coals to Newcastle comes to mind. Another first reaction was that many of the situations seemed a bit improbable. But then, I remembered situations in recent popular comedies where a 13 year old becomes 30 years old overnight, a mother and daughter switch bodies, and a very overweight black professor becomes very trim and obnoxious. All these movies are very funny, but they are also based on literally impossible situations. So what was I complaining about if it seems a bit improbable for a 60 year old high school teacher with a giant vocabulary and a history of psychotic violence is trying to break into the standup comedy joke writing profession.

This last description is a sketch of Woody Allen's character in this movie that, unlike almost all of his others where he has a role, is not the lead character. Rather, it supports the lead played by Jason Biggs who shares the spotlight with fellow teenage character specialist, Christina Ricci. Neither of these actors is drawn from Allen's usual pool of actors, since none of his usual late middle aged colleagues would have a chance at playing the 21-year-old characters. I have seen neither Biggs nor Ricci in any of their other movies, but I believe that they succeed very well here at playing largely innocent, unreflective young adults who do not yet have their lives nailed down to a solid foundation.

Biggs young gag writer character is being advised in several different directions by his nebbish agent, played with gusto as usual by Danny DeVito, his psychiatrist, and by Allen's character, whose advice usually wins out. The main action of the story is the young man's inability to be alone, leading him to fall in love with the immature siren Christina Ricci character, who is as disorganized with maintaining her emotional attachments as she is in managing her time, money, or mother. Most of the humor is generated by the goings on between these two characters, but great grins are also created by the really terrific performance by Stockard Channing as Ricci's mother.

In a sense, Biggs is playing Woody Allen of 40 years ago, as he appears in `Take the Money and Run', but without Allen's psychotic mischieviousness, as when Allen directs a parking driver to violently back into a parked car's headlights. Allen the writer reserves that grim humor for Allen the actor's character, especially when he smashes in the headlights and windshields of a car driven by two very heavily built young men who just stole a parking space from Allan's fire engine red Porsche.

`anything else', to my mind, is neither Allen's best or worst comedy, but it may be one of his best which combines comedy with serious, realistic human interaction. There is none of the fantasy hijinks of `Mighty Aphrodite' with its Greek chorus or even the Academy awarded `Annie Hall' with deux ex machina appearances of celebrities from behind movie cutouts. The only unusual device used in this movie is the Biggs' charter speaking directly to the audience, as if the audience was the only character in the room that really understands him. At least, it is the only character who can't talk back.

I agree with some other reviewers that Biggs and Ricci are not up to the quality of acting from veterans Channing and DeVito, but I thing their weak acting skills plays into their characters, who are not exactly strong people themselves, except that Biggs manages in the end to resolve his situation and free himself from immediate conflicts, with a little help from Woody's character.

As a comedy, this movie is a lot easier to take and to like than the dramatic `Husbands and Wives' or `Crimes and Misdemeanors', but it is more challanging than the comedies with easy gimmicks. Not quite as good as `Annie Hall' or `Manhattan', but well worth the viewing.