Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David) sees the big picture. As a genius who is well versed in Quantum Mechanics, he understands that we are all just beings who are destined to die, and that we should all take whatever slices of life that make us happy. He is also fully aware that somewhere out there, people who paid good money are looking into the bubble and viewing his life. Nobody believes him of course, but that doesn’t mean he won’t let us in.
Boris is a crotchety, cynical old man who believes that people are taking the wrong view on life. People tend to think that others are essentially decent people and will do the right thing when the situation calls for it. He doesn’t buy it, and rails constantly on this point. His friendships are based on allowing him to vent incessantly and then discussing these topics.
Enter Melodie St. Ann Celestine ( Evan Rachel Wood ). A runaway from Mississippi has arrived in the Big Apple to get away from her highly religious parents. Boris thinks her a empty headed zombie who doesn’t have the looks or the brains to last in New York, but he allows her to stay a couple of days to make the decision to go home. Months pass, and its apparent to all that even though she is highly impressionable, she is a good influence on Boris.
When her parents come to town (Patricia Clarkson and Ed Begley, Jr.), they tell tales of searching for her high and low. The police found nothing but dead ends, but they just prayed and found their way to her doorstep. Their time in NYC changes them completely as they are quickly drawn into romantic entanglements that were taboo where they came from.
In the end, its all about finding out what it is that makes you happy. Its not so much your goals, knowledge and standing in life, its got more to do with luck and engaging the world. It does seem to me that this was yet another self-indulgent Woody Allen film thats a an exercise in saying “its fine to do whatever you want.”
Larry David is a person that I can usually only tolerate for small periods of time (personally I was here to watch Evan Rachel Wood). He does effectively channel Woody Allen in this film, which is interesting considering that snippets of his life are played out on screen. The love with a woman a few decades younger than him, the neurotic, high strung awkward man who people seem to want to know and be around.
The screening I was at, it appeared that the film was made in soft focus, there is an almost bubble like view throughout, and this is probably to enforce that “the audience is watching”, but it seemed that I shouldn’t have noticed this fact.
I will say that this is probably his best film in this decade. I laughed at several points and liked the movie as a whole, which is more than I’ve been able to do with his other films in recent memory. But as people seem to like letting me know, my tastes in movies is extremely flawed.
Recommendation: Solid DVD Rental
