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Whatever Works
Whatever Works
Film 4780
Steven Pustay
Woody Allen’s film Whatever Works (2009) is significant for many reasons.
After making four consecutive films: Match Point (2005), Scoop (2006), Cassandra’s
Dream (2007), and Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008), outside the United States, and
especially away from his beloved New York environment, he made his return to the city
he loves with Whatever Works. Not only were these other films made in Europe, but they
all contained dramatic themes, swaying away from his fame-ridden comedy trademark.
As Brian Johnson notes in his essay “When Woody Met Larry,” “Whatever happened to
the zany intellectual who made us feel like New Yorkers, as he mocked bourgeois
pretension and his own neuroses in the same breathe” (Johnson)? With his latest film,
not only does he bring his audience back to Manhattan, but reacquaints them with the
comedy so many fans had missed. As Johnson exclaims, “Old Woody is back, in a new
guise. After making four movies in a row in Europe, the director has returned to the
streets of Manhattan to make a film that is vintage Woody Allen – literally” (Johnson).
Returning back to the city he so desperately declared love for in films like Annie Hall
(1977) and Manhattan (1979), in Whatever Works, the film progresses or regresses
With making such a landmark return, instead of casting himself as the protagonist
of the film, Woody chose Larry David to fill the shoes as Boris Yellnikov, an elder New
York Physicist, who after being nominated for a Nobel prize and losing, spends his days
teaching chess to “incompetent and moronic” children and cites how he is intellectually
superior to everyone else in the world for the fact he, like no one else, can “see the big
“Allen has found the ideal alter ego – or rather superego. Because David isn’t
just Woody redux. He’s Woody re-engineered as an alpha male – brimming with
bile but stripped of the nerdy, ingratiating traits that sweeten Allen’s typical
characters” (Johnson).
Marking the return to the city with a new take on the character, Allen opens the film with
an introduction.
Setting the scene with Boris amongst his friends, discussing religion at a sidewalk
New Work café, Boris flees from the discussion and into a rant, the most significant trait
of the character. Equating the teachings of Jesus Christ and Karl Marx, he states, “All
great ideas, but they both suffer from one fatal flaw: They’re based on the fallacious
notion that people are fundamentally decent,” and that “we’re a failed species.”
Spawning into further discussion, Boris is asked to tell, “his story.” As he takes his eyes
off the other characters and comes directly in contact with the viewer, he says, “my story
is Whatever Works,” then looks back at the characters. After his friend begs for Boris to
tell the other characters “his story,” he finally speaks up, saying, “You just want me to
say it again so they (acknowledges viewer) can hear it.” While the film establishes at that
point that Boris is capable of penetrating the fourth wall, it also shows that he is the only
one who can do so. Boris then stands, walks towards the camera and tirades to the
viewer about being in his presence. “Why would you want to hear my story, anyways?”
he asks as he continues walking toward the viewer, “Let me tell you right off, I’m not a
likable guy and just so you know, this is not the feel good movie of the year. So, if you’re
one of those idiots who needs to feel good—go get yourself a foot massage.” In his
revolutionary essay “The Modern Theatre Is An Epic Theatre,” Bertolt Brecht states, “the
artist’s object is to appear strange and even surprising to the audience” (Leach 118). In
this case, by choosing David to play the part, Woody disassociates himself from the
character, thus allowing the character to act at his disposal, making it an “object.” It is
obvious the technique of directly addressing the audience, used inspiringly by his idol
Ingmar Bergman, and the French New Wave directors of the 60’s, did in fact alienate the
viewer by making them aware of the fact they were watching a film. Not to mention,
Woody himself is by no means unfamiliar with this technique, having used it to create the
structure of Annie Hall. But this sense of address comes off quite differently than in the
other film. Obviously the first difference is that it is not Woody delivering the
monologue, but in this scene, comprised of long takes of Boris as he gives his long tiradic
monologue, there is simply more than just addressing the viewer. It is one idea to simple
address the viewer like Bergman used with Liv Ullman in Hour of the Wolf (1968) or
Jean-Luc Godard with Pierrot Le Fou (1965), but it is another to invoke feeling between
the character and the viewer. If it is said that addressing the viewer theoretically “breaks
the fourth wall,” there is absolutely nothing standing between the two, thus opening up
for complete exchange between character and viewer. Now this is slightly flawed by the
notion of distance that film provides compared to theatre, however as Boris stops talking
“Why do you want to hear about me? Christ, you have your own problems.
I’m sure you’re all obsessed with any number of sad little hopes and
dreams. Your predictably unsatisfying love lives, your failed business adventures.
‘If this,’ ‘if that,’ you know what? Give me a break with your ‘if haves” and
“should haves.”
Not only is he directly addressing the viewer, but reads the generated viewer’s mental
films they can relate to. In witnessing the story unfold, they take the elements in the film
and apply it to their own lives, however it is just as likely for the viewer to take their own
lives and apply it to the elements of the film, thus changing the overall reception of the
film for them. In cases like these, and for intellectuals and critics watching the film,
Woody’s technique not only disassembles the form of the film, but has created in a sense,
his own Frankenstein monster that he can pour all of his feeling in and project it in front
Also in the introductory monologue, Boris also gives a little exposition to the life
before coming to grips with the notion of “whatever works,” stating, “Don’t think I’m
civilization, I’ve been pretty lucky. I was married to a beautiful woman, who had family
scene in reference to the life he once had, and separate from the one he has when the film
begins. Going to a flashback, Boris awakens in a panic and argues with his wife about
their incompatibility due to her affair and his ability to see “the big picture.” The scene is
as follows:
After this conversation, Boris opens the window and jumps in hopes to commit suicide,
which in turn fails, cutting back to Boris continuing his monologue. This establishes the
shift in his philosophy on life as he says, “anyways, I divorced Jessica, moved downtown
and gave up.” Living with Jessica, he accepted the meaninlessness in his existence or as
Albert Camus considers the “absurd” in his essay “The Myth of Sisyphus,” stating, “the
absurd is not in man nor the world, but in their presence together” (Camus 6). This
explains his actions of the suicide attempt, being that the absurd consists of him living
inside the world with Jessica and needing to literally “break out.” Boris’ reasons to
commit suicide connect to Camus’ philosophy on suicide, when in his essay he claims,
“suicide is a solution to the absurd” (Camus 6). Only when coming to grips with the
absurd is Boris able to eliminate its grasp through taking oneself out of “the big picture.”
Upon leading to a failed attempt by falling on the canopy, he accepted the philosophy of
Whatever Works, being as he states in the monologue, “Anyway you can filch a little joy
in this cruel dog-eat-dog pointless black chaos,” get and give it.
That being said, Boris meets Melody, who is the exact opposite of himself. She
left her home of Eden Mississippi in order to come to the Big City. Here, two different
locations are establishes with their own sets of ideas: Eden (taken from the Garden of
Eden in the Bible’s book of Genesis) represents “purity,” and the city represents “sin.”
Every character who journeys from Eden to the city, fall into what most will consider the
“sins” in which the city provides. Melody accepts the ideas of atheism and thinks
intellectually, her mother Marietta discovers the bohemian artist in her and falls into a
ménage à trios relationship, and her father, John, discovers his deep repressed
homosexual desires. While the city allows tourists to discover sights, it also gives certain
individuals insight within their own lives. Take for instance, Annie in Annie Hall. In the
beginning, when Alvy meets Annie, she is shy and quite neurotic, however she develops
through her own mingling within the city to the point where she discovers her inner-self.
Being that the city plays such a large part in Melody’s progression, it is impotant to
mention that she is just as much the key figure in Boris’ progression. Upon first meeting
Melody, he establishes a scale based on her looks, at first considering her a 3, (5 if she
bathed), then she grew to a 6, and finally winning Boris’ heart to a 7 or 8. Boris’ scale
does bring up an interesting perspective. Love is something that is achieved over time.
Just as Melody develops a “crush” on Boris, he realizes how much she changes from an
“inchworm” to an intellectual all because of her interaction with him. This illustrates
how love is actually absurd. Tying back to Camus’ quote, the only cure for such a vast
emotion is to take one’s self out of the world. More importantly, Melody’s progression
on Boris’ scale implicates the idea that it is possible to “fall” in love with anyone, or
better yet, convince oneself they are in fact in love, altogether. Boris teaches Melody
everything from his existential philosophy to the wide range of vocabulary he uses within
his long tirades that she obviously absorbs. When she asks for his thoughts regarding her
“Anything deeper, anything significant between us is out of the question. It’s too
preposterous to even dignify with an answer. Every single thing is against it: our
ages, our backgrounds, our brains, our interests. Not to mention I have no desire
to have a relationship with a woman, any woman, nor any urge to make love or
Boris establishes his view on her “crush,” but also shines light to his newly accepted
point to what one does, if they are granted with any happiness, they take it. There might
“works.” Boris mentions how he and Melody are complete opposites. This in contrast to
his quote earlier regarding his and Jessica’s compatibility presents a completely new idea
on love. When she questions him on his loathsome feelings about love, he says, “Love,
despite what they tell you, does not conquer all. Nor does it even usually last. In the end,
the romantic aspirations of our youth are reduced to ‘whatever works.” At this point,
when Melody’s oppositional stance in Boris’ eyes would have possibly ‘worked,” it was
when she came home after her date that convinced Boris of reevaluating his position of
love. Her distaste for everything she represented establishes the beginning of her
transformation. Commenting about her date, she says to Boris, “he likes everything!
Life, love, human beings. The couple we dated with were protons. Cretins. They didn’t
even know the first thing about String Theory. They actually believe that love is the
answer to everything.” She fully establishes her new self through Boris’ eyes when she
tells the story of her old friend Jedthro Page and how he made love to a sheep, and ending
it with, “You know, I told them, it’s like Boris always says, ‘whatever works.’” Upon
hearing this, Boris goes into a long monologue reassessing his entire relationship with
her:
“Unbelievable. The chance factor in life is mind boggling. You enter the world by
a random event somewhere along the Mississippi. I, having emerged through the
conjoining of Sam and Yedda Yollnikov in the Bronx, decades earlier. And
Boris’ affection for Melody not only reevaluates his definition of love, but also provides
his life with hope, and in return, works. Boris’ marriage to Melody keeps him alive, since
he obviously contains a philosophical view on the world that would eventually lead to
another suicide attempt, therefore, the happiness that she provides him ceases any
possibility in the urge of wanting to partake in another attempt. “She’s cheerful,” Boris
says walking happily along the street, “not demanding. Okay, not brilliant as Jessica, but
not as ambitious and predatory either. Jessica’s problem was that she made up an ego,
When Marietta discovers her daughter’s location and condition, she is absolutely
shocked, however it is when she, herself, gives into her own inner deep desires that she
understands the location, but continues to loathe the condition. Marietta brings the
horrible news of having lost their house in Eden and her separation from John, her
husband. It is mentioned that Melody’s father took up with another woman. The
Melody. She tells him that she is married and his response is, “it may not last forever,”
causing Melody to accept this likelihood, saying, “Well, nothing lasts forever, not even
Shakespeare or Michelangelo or Greek people. Even as we’re standing here talking right
now, we’re just flying apart at an unimaginable speed.” He wraps his arms around her
and says, “Shouldn’t we hold onto one another so we don’t fall?” The realization of this
likelihood fully hits her to the point where she utters in response: “Well, you have to hold
onto whatever love you can in this cruel existence.” By stating this, she herself develops
the Whatever Works philosophy, even so far as stating the exact purpose of it within her
opposition to his attraction. Melody is placed in the exact same situation as Boris in the
beginning: whether to go with the way one is placed in the world, or into the urge with
whatever works, just as she, her mom and her dad gives into. Melody is pushed even
further to the limit when going back to Boris, she become consciously aware of her
aggravation with Boris’ desire to seek unhappiness and his tirades altogether, saying,
“Sometimes I think your so determined not to enjoy anything in life just out of spite. Like
a child who’s throwing a tantrum because he can’t have his way.” Instead of being upset,
Boris is actually surprised, proud even by her newfound ability to create such a wise,
pronounces, “I really don’t know what I’d do without you, seriously,” adding gasoline to
comfortably on a dock, and cannot help but fight the temptation of her being pushed to
such a heightened limit that she gives into the universal pull. Upon being kissed, she
instantly thinks of two things. The first being entropy, applying it to an analogy with
toothpaste, one that can best be described as once something is out, it cannot go back in.
Her situation is obviously the metaphor in the analogy. After giving into the temptation
that works, there is no going back to Boris and accepting the life she once had. The other
thing she thinks about is Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, something she associates in
a sexual manner, claiming, “It’s like when my mother makes love to one of the guys
she’s living with alone but when she’s with the other guy she does it differently.” By
establishing her own insight of Heisenberg and relating it to her own life, Melody
illustrates two different versions of herself influenced by two different people: Melody
with Boris and Melody with Randy. Boris represents the mind, Randy, the body. It was
Boris’ ideas on life that attracted to her, just as equally shown through Randy’s handsome
appearance. Melody’s choice for Randy is made the very minute she kisses him back.
Ridden with guilt, Melody attempts to confess the incident to Boris and opt out of the
John, having cheated on Marietta comes to bring the news of his departure from
the woman he was having an affair with, hoping to reconcile the family and bring them
back to Eden. Only when he talks to Marietta does he notice how much the world has
changed without his presence. “You went away! You can’t expect the world to stay the
same way just because you’re not here,” Marietta yells at John. He is sent through his
own frenzy, leading him right to the only place to find solace – a bar. Inside the bar, he
meets Howard Cummings, a gay divorcee, just like John—wallows over the loss of a
love. John contains the inability to accept the possibility that one would be as he phrases,
“a member of the homosexual persuasion,” and that being one constitutes “a sin against
God’s law.” “God is gay,” Howard responds to John, which in this case is a valid
argument if one believes in God’s existence and that God creates man in his own image.
Case in point, Howard’s identity and John’s repression of homosexual desires derive
straight from God’s image. John progressed forward with his affair, however it left him
sexually impotent by regressing back to his marriage, that itself being a progression away
from his actual homosexuality. All of this progressing and regressing leads John forward
when he meets Howard and confesses his repressed emotions, thus winding up in a
While the guilt overwhelms Melody, she gives in and confesses to Boris her love
for someone else. While at first, he appears shocked, next Boris quickly accepts it:
This scene is pivotal to the film, because it, like his climax with Jessica, marks Boris’
ascension back into disparity. By accepting Melody, he gave into the universe and
whatever worked. Now adding heatbreak on top of his persuasion to fate, Boris falls
deeper into self-pity absorbed by what Jean-Paul Sartre consider “despair.” “Life
begins,” as Sartre exclaims, “on the other side of despair” (Sartre ix). The whatever
works philosophy had not run its course and no longer worked, thus causing him to
accept Sartre’s beautiful idea: “nothing happens when you live. The scenery changes,
people come in and out, that’s all” (39). The other reason this important is its connection
to other Woody Allen films where a breakup occurs. In Bananas (1971), while taking a
comedic approach with Fielding Mellish, the film shows the urge to stall the act of the
breakup itself. Annie Hall presents reluctant Alvy Singer, who proposes the perfect
illustration for a relationship when he says, “a relationship is like a shark, it has to keep
movie or it dies. And what we have on our hand is a dead shark.” In Manhattan, Isaac
presents unfound shock upon Mary telling him that she is still in love with Yale. There
are others, however these films, including Whatever Works, encapsulate the rigid halt in
life when a breakup is announced. The acceptance of harshness within life is established
as truth. One might deny it, however only when the even happens is it constituted as
truth. As Kierkegaard said, “Truth exists for the individual only as he himself produces it
in action” (May 12). To go further into Kierkegaard statement, the individual both
produces and receives it since it take one person to propose the breakup and the other to
accept it.
In the end, like most of Woody’s films, he includes a montage, but this time
upbeat jazz music is not playing nor is there anything funny within the segments, but
instead a somber melody aurally complements a shot of Marietta in bed with Bockman
and Morganstern, Melody on the dock kissing Randy and finally Boris washing his
hands, alone. The music ends as he jumps out the window. Boris returns yet to the
notion of the absurd and turns to the only cure. However, instead of jumping out the
window to his death, he lands on a Helena, a woman walking her dog. In the hospital
room, Helena attempts to lecture him on the pointlessness in suicide and if he ever
thought of how his actions would affect other people. Stern as he is, Boris argues with
her until she asks him to leave. After asking if there is anything else he can do, she asks
that when she recuperates that he take her to dinner. He asks what she does for a living
and she replies, “a psychic.” With a soft laugh, Boris then asks, “if you can see into the
future, how didn’t you know I was going to jump out of a building and land on top of
you?” She smiles and softly responds, “Maybe I did.” This marks the point in which
Boris yet again discovers hope in the world. Just as he went from developing a
pessimistic view through disparity with the ending of his and Jessica’s relationship, he
opened his mind and heart to Melody, adopting a whatever works view that would fall
apart with their breakup, sending him once again into disparity, and literally falling into
the arms of Helena, who once again changed his philosophy on life. During his new
year’s party, Melody asks him about his life, and he responds: “As you would say in the
crude fashion of your generation, ‘I totally lucked out.’ It just shows what meaningless
blind chance the universe is. Everybody schemes and dreams to meet the right person and
I jump out a window and land on her.” The film itself does not conclude in the cliché
feel good way scathed upon by Boris in the beginning, but presents life as it is.
Sometimes life can be hard to accept, other times it can be easy, but according to Boris,
one just does. Going back to Sartre’s quote on disparity, he clearly establishes that there
is another side to disparity in where life presides along with happiness. Existence is just
a matter of finding what side one falls on and deciding if it is the desired one. For Boris,
he situated himself, then constantly alternated, just as everyone does in existence. While
addressing the camera in completely a newer, happier tone compared to the beginning, he
reiterates his philosophy: “Whatever love you can get and give, whatever happiness you
When Charlie Chaplin portrayed the lovable Tramp character in his films, he
always has some entanglement with a beautiful women before making the trademark
walk into the sunset alone. However it was in Modern Times (1936) that a woman
accompanied his side into sunset at the end. Whatever Works ends instead with another
breakup, but the beginning of a relationship. The viewer knows merely Helena’s
profession and her name and the movie ends. Perhaps this ending suggests that it is
pointless to conclude with giving the viewer an implication of what will happen. Instead
of establishing a “will it work” or “will it not” feeling, Woody instead has Boris
metaphorically walking off into the sunset with Helena at his side and willing to accept
“whatever works.”
Works Cited
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays. New York, NY: Albert A.
Johnson, Brian D. “When Woody Met Larry.” Maclean’s. 122.22 (2009): 22-27.
Lech, Robert. Makers of Modern Theatre. New York, NY: Routledge Publishing, 2004.
Print.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Nausea. New York, NY: New Directions Publishing Co., 1964. Print.