To Woody Allen: A Plea

I have been a huge fan of Woody Allen's movies. Hannah and Her Sisters, Sweet and Lowdown, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Annie Hall... these are all movies that should make anyone's top 100 list. His hilarious spoof on Russian literature, Love and Death, is easily one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. I love the old Woody Allen.

The new Woody, however, is something else. After a string of truly middling fare, last year Mr. Allen released Anything Else, a trying comedy starring Jason Biggs (as the character Woody himself used to play), Christina Ricci (as the high maintenance yet supposedly adorable girlfriend), and Woody Allen (as the older confident who is without a doubt a loon). On paper it seems like a cute idea: Jerry Falk (Biggs) is having problems with his girlfriend Amanda (Ricci). He consults with fellow writer and paranoid(Dobel), and we see the relationships play out. On paper it's one thing, but on the screen it was something else.

The biggest problem wasn't the writing or the characters per se. It was that Christina Ricci was totally incapable of making us understand why so many men fell so quickly for her. The line of "well let's just assume she had something to her" doesn't work. I found her character annoying, grating, and above all overtly selfish and nasty. She was a bitch. I had a hard time believing anyone would waste more than a week on her. Biggs's character was obviously a shmuch in all areas of his life, keeping on a manager who did him more harm than good for example, but even this was too much to believe.

This is all a far cry from Diane Keaton's Annie Hall, who was ditzy and funny and neurotic, but you couldn't help but love her. Which is sort of the way I felt about Woody; he was a total neurotic mess, but you couldn't help but love him. Now, when confronted with the prospect of him releasing a new film, I just groan, "Give me anything else!" So, Woody, babe, sweetheart, please stop while you're still slightly ahead and don't taint our memories of you any further!

(My apologies for that terrible pun)