Review: Deconstructing Harry

In a plot supposedly inspired by Bergman’s “Wild Strawberries”, Woody Allen plays a writer named Harry Block, who is about to be honoured by the University he was years ago thrown out of. Meanwhile, we encounter the fictional characters in Harry’s novel (Demi Moore, Richard Benjamin, Stanley Tucci, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus), as well as their real-life counterparts who are somewhat enraged with Harry for his rather thinly-veiled fictional takes on them. Harry’s journey of self-analysis leads him down some bizarro paths, including a meeting with The Devil himself (played by Billy Crystal). Judy Davis is Harry’s especially enraged sister-in-law whom he cheated on Amy Irving with, before ditching both of them for Elisabeth Shue. Kirstie Alley is another of Harry’s ex’s, a shrink and the mother of his kid, she is also the inspiration for the Moore character. Caroline Aaron plays Harry’s estranged sister who thinks Harry is a self-hating Jew. She is also married to a Conservative Jew (Eric Bogosian), leading to some tension between the three, especially when Harry turns up for an impromptu visit with his ‘kidnapped’ son (don’t ask) and an African-American prostitute named Cookie (Hazelle Goodman) on their way to the University!

 

Along with “Annie Hall”, this quite dark and profane 1997 comedy is my favourite Woody Allen film, though I’m far from a fan of the writer-director. But this one is definitely among his funniest and least pretentious. Plot-wise it’s pretty standard stuff but done in a non-linear and interesting way. Yes it does contain Woody’s trademark misogyny, but Judy Davis’ big tirade against Woody is nonetheless a terrific moment, and although Richard Benjamin is at least twenty years too old for Julia Louis-Dreyfus, they certainly have at least one very memorable moment together. The one thing in Woody’s defence here is that he’s criticising himself, basically. The women here rip into him, often for writing bad, thinly veiled things about them. All Woody films tend to have some psychoanalysis but this one’s a lot darker (to a degree that might make you wonder about the guy) and even surreal at times. The Grim Reaper is in it, for starters.

 

There’s a particularly great bit where Robin Williams plays a literally out-of-focus actor. ‘Take some rest and see if you can sharpen up’ is the advice he gets. It’s really funny and a clever idea, with Williams reunited with “Awakenings” co-star (and Marge Simpson) Julie Kavner as his wife who gets seasick from looking at him! Woody himself has a funny moment with his character’s son, and yes it does turn to penis talk. I also liked the bit where Woody actually encounters Richard Benjamin, who is a literary version of himself. It’s like meta-psychoanalysis times infinity. And then Woody gets scolded by the very psychoanalyst he creates in his own mind! The funniest gag in the whole film, aside from the Williams character, is the “Star Wars” bar mitzvah, which is just brilliant. Billy Crystal, meanwhile, plays the most Vegas incarnation of Satan you’ve ever seen. He’s like a really bad insult comic. See, ‘coz Satan is ‘bad’? Get it? Thank you, I’m here all week. Try the lobster. I also have no problem believing that most of Woody’s sexual fantasies involve Josef Stalin’s daughter. My only problem with the entire film is the use of jump cuts, which are always annoying and unnecessary to me.

 

Woody’s depiction of women, and his depiction of his character/alter ego’s relationships with women are interesting here; Only in a Woody Allen film, for instance, would a shrink played by Demi Moore (pretty funny here) be interested in her patient played by Stanley Tucci. Meanwhile, anyone who ditches Amy Irving to have an affair with Judy Davis is insane...unless they end up with Elisabeth Shue on the way to meeting Davis for a rendezvous. Davis, however is clearly miscast from the very moment you hear Irving get jealous of her and say that she’s so beautiful. She looks like a manic depressive drunk, and that’s presumably with a lot of makeup and ‘movie magic’. Sorry, but it’s true and plays very strangely in the film.

 

Is the film a series of bits and running Woody monologues? Yes, but for once, most of it is actually funny (The story about an elderly fellow keeping an old, extremely dark secret from his wife stands out like a sore thumb and should’ve been cut). Egotistical, but funny,. This is a sorely underrated, and often funny film about self-analysis, self-loathing, angst, religion, and Death it (and him) self. A whack on the knuckles for all the jump-cuts, though. That’s so amateur hour.

 

Rating: B