Not a movie review - head over to salon.com's review of Whatever Works for that - rather, my thoughts on the film, assuming the reader has seen it.
Despite a veneer of cynicism, "Whatever Works" is ultimately a optimistic philosophy of love. Indeed, the movie title is our protagonist's view of love explicitly expressed in one of his speaking-to-the-audience asides. While that philosophy might be an admirable one, the movie labours the point.
This film is also more than a bit deceptive in its presentation of this view of romance: it's not about two people finding each other and accepting each other for who they are. Rather, each of the main relationships in the film starts with someone falling in love based on some unknown initial spark - so far, so good: the ingredients for attraction are mysterious ones. However, the object of desire then conveniently finds a completely different, previously undiscovered, side of their personality. Each member of the Celestine family from Mississippi turns out to be one neurosis-resolution away from happiness and true love. While this may all be part of the joke, it comes across as more than a little contrived. The daughter, Melodie, discovers a suppressed intellectual curiosity. Her father has an almost insulting easy adjustment to the realization of his homosexuality. Melodie's mother, in an entertaining performance, discovers her talent for photography. Apparently photographer-artists are obliged to live in polygamous relationships; this aspect of the film is lifted directly from Allen's previous, and more satisfying, movie Vicky Christina Barcelona.
While a big part of a romantic relationship is self discovery, the personal growth resulting from the couples in Whatever Works is one sided. I'm not willing to credit Boris Yellnikoff's (Larry David) realisation that "maybe loving a human being isn't that bad" as being that much of a breakthrough.
My main problem with the film may be that the movie rests on Larry David's character whom I struggle to appreciate. Again from salon, Heather Havrilesky points out that Jason Alexander plays the "Larry David" character - as "George" in Seinfeld - better than Larry David does. In the recently concluded television series "Curb your Enthusiasm" Larry David portrays himself. The character George comes across as a lovable loser. In contrast, we get to see how much Larry David delights in showing us just how cynical and unlikable he is really is - it's the George character with mean-spiritedness replacing the goofy charm.
Overall, I didn't get many laughs from the film. This may in part be because I watched it on a long-haul flight with crackly audio on Swiss airline's mediocre entertainment system in economy-class squinty-vision. Comedies are usually better seen in a theatre to get the social proof of the rest of the audience laughing along.
