Rating: 
Summary: Wood's best film from the 90's
Review: In Deconstructing Harry, Allen protrays his alter-ego of Harry as an abomination, an ultra depressed, woman cheating, tap-dancing (with words), and obviously oblivious to other people's feelings persona. And yet, it is Allen's second best film in my opinion. I like characters like this in the movies, who are unsympathetic and yet in-advertantly by being the protagonist you have to feel a little sympathy after a while (how can't you when he reveals Billy Crystal as a Hollywood hating Satan, a common Jewish man turns out to be a murdering cannibal, and that there are signs that goddesses exist at Victoria's Secret?).Here, Harry has writer's block for the first time in his life (his last name is Block as well, pun possibly intended) since everyone he has taken from his real life and "thinly disguised" isn't around to give him any ideas (outside of the Crystal thing). The bulk of the film holds flashbacks, in brilliantly edited fashion, where he recollects his old stories, the alter egos of his real life wives and relatives and so on. If Woody had made this movie as a deep and serious self-reflection of his demons, it would be interesting but it wouldn't be funny. Here, he reminds his old fans that he can bring laugh out loud jokes and gags, most for Jewish people, to be sure, but all around ones as well, and the moment you realize it's a comedy/drama and not a vulgar piece of cinema that was thrown from Woody's chair as a backlash to the critics, you'll have fun. One of the best pictures from 1997.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny & original
Review: This is perhaps Allen's most consistently funny offering of recent years. Here, Allen plays a neurotic writer who finds it easier to manage the semi-fictional world of his characters (projections of family, friends and his own fears and psychological hangups) than the real world. So far, the character is just an extension of the same cynical New York-Jewish type that he has been playing for years. The originality is found in the stories within the story. The traumas and dilemmas that face Allen's character find themselves worked out in surreal and quite ingenious vignettes, firstly in the realm of his fiction, but increasingly in his day-to-day life, as things go from bad to worse. As ever, Allen exploits every irony, and is frequently hilariously sardonic as he explores the world of the archetypal, tragic neurotic, to whom life has dealt one hard blow. On the downside, the bad language is more frequent and offensive than any other Allen film, and the sexual content more explicit (visually). Other than that, this one will have you in stitches.
Rating: 
Summary: Allen re-invents himslef on screen
Review: "Deconstructing Harry" opens when a tryst between a Ken (Richard Benjamin) and his sister in-law (Julia Louise-Dreyfuss) in a country home is interrupted (at that most critical moment) by her blind mother. The film then cuts to having Lucy (Judy Davis) burst into Harry's (Woody Allen) NYC apartment, gun in hand and out for blood. For a few minutes, you'll be scratching your head, wondering what's going on. As a wonderfully deft script makes clear, the tryst was a merely a story - one of many Harry has written - which "reveals" the affair between him and Lucy, his sister in-law Harry. Harry, it soon becomes clear, occupies himself writing, using the people he meets and horribly exploits as grist for his mill. "I'm a guy who can't function well in life but can in art," he says of himself. The templates for Harry's characters know full well who they are in his stories, though Harry offers much to make him detestable to them. Frustration dominates much of Harry's work, meaning that most of those scarred by his prose are women. Harry himself is the common denominator, but his self-loathing insulates him from. Instead, he constantly fends off bile from his estranged wife (Kirstie Alley) and various other discarded lovers. Though episodic, the plot reveals how Harry loses his capacity to absorb pain when he realizes he has lost the one woman he may have truly loved - Fay (Elisabeth Shue). Where he could have normally and dispassionately written off the dissatisfaction he felt with his pretty new wife (the "Mendel Birnbaum" story) or the ridiculous social rituals of his childhood Jewish community (theme Bar Mitzvah's - including one patterned after Star Wars) and even disarmed his fiecest foes (literally - he soothes the frenzied Lucy by reading her one of his latest stories), he now becomes mean spirited and introspective. At first he forces himself to visualize the pain Lucy suffered when realizing that Harry had discarded her - without substituting one of his invented characters. Unable to face that, he envisions his romantic rival (Billy Crystal) as the devil - inverting his habit of reinventing actual events with invented people. Much of the film is implicit apologia for Allen's true-life exploits - his discarding an older lover for a younger and fresher one (in Elisabeth Shue) who is nevertheless old eough to be considered responsible. Also, the film ends way too pat and self-congratulatory: just when he is forced to accept his losing Fay, and perhaps learn to deal with real people rather than invented and inventive versions of real people, Harry suddenly imagines himself confronted by all of his characters. Rather than a painful denouement, since the characters are products of Harry's warped soul, it turns out that they think he's pretty cool. He gave them life and depth, and of course, everybody loves his work as long as they don't appear in it. Having worked up to a brutally honest conclusion, the result seems incredibly shallow - the sort of Hollywood ending that Allen routinely dismisses, but one that caps off a great effort. Still a worthy effort, but one only Allen fans will enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: The Perfect Woody Allen Film.
Review: "Deconstructing Harry" is not just a Perfect Woody Allen film, it's a Perfect film... Period. Allen's Dialogue Shines more than Ever in this Ultra-Clever Showcase of his Writing/Directing Talents for a New Generation, like Myself, to Discover. Never before has Dialogue been So Cleverly Written, and then So Brilliantly Delivered (except for "The Big Lebowski" of course). Allen's Casts are always something to Behold, but in "Deconstructing Harry", he has gathered enough big names to open 20 films. Judy Davis' nervy style fits in a Woody Allen film Perfectly. He brings out the Best in her. Where in Other films her All or Nothing performances can lean towards the Wrong side of Annoying, under Allen's Steady and Strong Direction, she gives her Best Performances (she has Also worked with him in "Celebrity" and "Husbands and Wives"). In fact, I'm going to cut my review short to go and watch the film right now, every actor is great, every line is memorable. See it now.
Rating:
Summary: Deconstructing Woody
Review: Although he borrowed from Ingmar Bergman's "Wild Strawberries" for this one, "Deconstructing Harry" is pure Woody. Woody Allen is a comic genius and this movie proves it. There are one or two dull spots, but by far most of it is absolutely hilarious. The film begins with a pivotal Nietzschean ("eternal recurrence of the same") moment, then enters a psychological study of the movie's unlikely hero, a neurotic writer named Harry Block (played by Woody) who, like an alchemist, turns base autobiographical metal into literary gold. Like many of Woody's movies, this one contains strong autobiographical elements and comparisons with the Woody-Mia scandal are inevitable. Great cast. Nice blend of deep, psychological/philosophical meditation and laugh-out-loud comedy. Worth watching!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely five-star classic!
Review: I confess I got into Woody Alen's movies not too long ago (maybe some 4-5 years ago), but up to now I've come to highly respect his work, and "Deconstructing Harry" is simply brilliant. Some top moments: When Robin Williams has "lost focus" simply WILL make you laugh with a sense of respect for how brilliant Allen can be; the conversation between Billy Crystal (I reserve the name of the character he plays, in order NOT to spoil things) and Woody Allen (Harry) is awesome -your typical male-male chat in a sports bar, maybe, but taking place in a rather bizarre setting... The story comes down to a writer who has lost inspiration and decides (bad idea, perhaps... or perhaps not!) to write about some of the episodes of his live, putting in the open some things that other people (ex-lovers, friends, etc.) would have preferred to keep in the closet. Anyway, I shouldn't disclose to much, but one thing I have to say: you oughta see this movie. Bt the way, did I mention, there's (as usual) an incredible cast?
Rating:
Summary: Woody wins with 'DECONSTRUCTING HARRY'
Review: I absolutely love Woody Allen! I don't care what public mishaps he finds himself in, he still manages to woo movie audiences with the same fiery jocularity and audasity as he has for the past 30 years. Next to "Mighty Aphrodite", and "Manhattan", this is one of Allen's best. "Deconstructing Harry" could be looked at as Woody's love letter to himself. It's about a divorced writer, who during the course of the movie looks back on his life and his work in all it's facets and flaws, jokes and groans. He is to recieve an award for his work from a university, and in true Woody Allen style, he brings his son, a [prostitute], and a dead man in the back seat. Upon his arrival he is greeted and celebrated by all the people and characters who shaped his life and his work. FANTASTIC! Allen pulls off a hilarious plot tinged with that classic Allen wit and humor that shines through to our hearts and brains! Packed with a great cast including Robin Williams, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Tobey McQuire, and Billy Crystal in a cameo as Satan (a role that he is PERFECT in), Allen once again proves that he always can get the right people for the job. You could probably rename this movie "Woody on Woody", but that would sound kinda wrong! But it is Woody Allen on Woody Allen, an allegorical film about his own life and work, packed with a great cast, a great plot, fantastic humor and wit, and of course, Woody Allen, the great American humorist, the ringmaster of it all, deconstructing himself to find the true essence of himself.
Rating:
Summary: I'm Just Wild About "Harry"
Review: I have been a Woody Allen fan since the mid-60's. I have enjoyed his movies going back to "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" up through "Husbands and Wives." Well, "Deconstructing Harry" must rank right up there as one of his best. Sure, the quirky style and jumpy narrative take some getting used to, and the four-letter words--especially when they come from the mouth of Woody's character, Harry--are initially jarring, but the overall effect is exhilarating. The scene where Kirstie Alley, playing a therapist who was married to Harry, reams him out because he exploited their relationship by having sex with one of her patients, is one of the best scenes in the entire Woody Allen filmography; this is a dynamite scene because of, not in spite of, the fact that we know that a confrontation like this must have taken place between Woody and Mia over you-know-who. As others have said, this movie is not for everyone. It could be said that this is one of the bitterest funny movies ever, or that it is one of the funniest bitter movies ever. Try it!
Rating:
Summary: One of Woody's Best Films
Review: I am a huge Woody Allen fan, more for his ability to delve into the urban and sometimes urbane lives of very flawed people than his slap stick comedy. Looking at his corpus of work, it is hard to believe that movies like Bananas, Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask), Husbands and Wives and, my favorite, Crimes and Misdemeanors could come from the same person. Deconstructing Harry remains true to the title as the viewer is given a wild postmodern view of a man who wrestles with his own identity amidst the numerous identities he has created around him. Allen's character is, as is often the case with Allen, startlingly autobiographical, while the character also suffers from the fact that his stories are also insultingly biographical. While Celebrities may surpass this film in vulgarity, Allen comes pretty close in this one, with a level of humour that is almost crude, even with a touch of rare anger. There is no "simple" adultery here; the character is blatantly sexually obsessed. It makes for simultaneously hilarious and sobering comedy. At the time of watching the film, I wondered if this was perhaps Allen's last film. The moving tribute he gives to the characters he has created over the years is touching, and would have been a good exit for a man whose careers has spanned decades. Retrospectively looking at films Allen has made since then still makes me think it would have been a good end.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty great, not great
Review: I no longer have any opinion of this pretty good film.
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