Woody Allen goes back to a place he never really left

By Steven Zeitchik

Vicky Cristina Barcelona -- the latest Woody Allen romantic comedy to engage not so much in love triangles but in love hexagons, octagons and other numerous-sided geometric shapes -- is the biggest return to form for the director since...well, the many other times he's done it.

If the only thing constant in this world is change, the only thing constant to Woody Allen is that he keeps returning to form.

The many critics who say Vicky C is "an achievement (that) is all the more impressive--a return to form" (Emanuel Levy) and "a nice return to form for Allen after Cassandra's Dream" (Ain't It Cool) are following in their own deep tradition.

Back in 2005, when Allen released the infidelity psychodrama "Match Point," EW's Owen Gleiberman noted that it's "the most vital return to form for any director since Robert Altman made the Player."

In 2003, when twentysomething romance "Anything Else" hit Venice, the Guardian said that "after 14 years and as many attempts to recapture his old magic, the New York director has finally made a film which holds up to his earlier work...a return to form."

When Allen came out with "Deconstructing Harry" ten years ago, his admittedly sharp and funny retort to the many who have wronged him, what it accomplished, as the Austin Chronicle told us, was "mark the writer/director/actor's return to top form."

Heck, even "Melinda and Melinda" got the RTF treatment, though, true, it was from the blog site JoBlo (the reviewer described it as "a return to form for the hard-working movie machine') which makes you kind of wonder if "form" is simply another word for "sort-of watchable."

Yes yes, we get the point -- he's not making heist movies, and that's a good thing. And clearly there's an element of faint praise in these compliments, a way for reviewers to take small knocks at previous output while still feeling like they're not too hard on the old workhorse (and establishing their old-school Allen bona fides to boot).

But it raises the question: If someone keeps returning to form, then have they ever left it? Or put differently, if you keep returning to form, is that just another way of saying you're making the same movie again and again?

Don't get us wrong; Vicky Cristina is perfectly enjoyable. The pic, which premiered on Monday in Los Angeles and in NY on Wednesday at a Peggy Siegel screening-and-dinner that made it feel like October in August (an event with all the trimmings, Harvey in black T-shirt in front of the theater, Javier Bardem jokingly yelling back from the middle of it), is a relatively light look at how several young women come of age in a cetain kind of European bohemia alien to them, and thus kind of exciting.

And sure, not everything is the same -- there's the girl-on-girl subplot (hey, even Woody's doing the Joe Francis), while Gaudi buildings and Barcelona in full bloom sub in for Olmstead and New York in full bloom. And the angry woman representing all of Allen's ex-wives is, well, Spanish-speaking in this one.

But still. This is a (slightly) contemporized version of the urbane romantic comedies he made in the late 70's through the mid '80's and on the updates he did on them later -- "Crimes and Misdemeanors" and "Husbands and Wives" and "Match Point" and "Hannah and Her Sisters" and many other movies in which a fixed group of men and women fall in love with each other, play musical chairs and fall in love with someone else, until by the end no one is happy but no one is ever really heartbroken or devastated either, the way they might be in, say, real life. There's even a shot here of two women and a man walking down the street discussing relationships in that hyperarticulate Allen-ish way that's pure Manhattan. Why this? Why not a political satire a la Bananas or genre spoof a la Sleepers?

Specialty execs have been coveting the Weinstein Company savvy's sumer strategy of brigning out a romantic comedy for a sophisticated adult audience, because fills a pretty big hole in theaters right now. Wouldn't it be nice, they say, to score plenty of review media, retail some Sca-Jo TV appearances and pick up some box office just for being a little different than what's out there? To not have to spend a ton or launch the most innovative marketing campaign in history, but sitll make a few dollars because people know what they're going to get? Now that would be the true return to form.

Comments

[tom]

interesting article... may i add... why do critics also have to bore us with their view of woody allen's history and the history of their cinematic relationship with him... every single time he does a movie... why not just review the movie in front of them. and this decade he did a few non romantic comedies like small time crooks and scoop... and i think you can argue the same points about woody allen romantic comedies with just romantic comedies in general. but for the most part it's crime, romance or both. i'd love for him to do a modern bananas or sleeper.

[Dan Zee]

The thing about Woody is that we all hope he's going to make great film, and every now and then, there's a critic here and there who feels nostalgically there's a bit of the old Woody in his latest films. But usually what winds up happening is in a few months you wind up forgetting the film, except for maybe a supporting actress Oscar nod, and in a year or so, the cycle happens again with a new Woody film.

Woody is one of the very few movie-makers who have been able to get funding for every film he wanted to make. Of course, he's now had to go to Europe for financing, but he's been extremely lucky. Unfortunately, Hollywood has given up on his little personal art films, knowing he's never going to make a comedy blockbuster like Juno or Knocked Up.

[Rich]

Mr. Zeitchik,

Before writing an article on Woody Allen, you may want to get your facts straight. "Anything Else" is not an intergenerational romantic comedy. You obviously haven't seen it or taken the time to read a logline or synopsis, Mr. JOURNALIST. It is a movie about a young, twenty-something couple and the ups and downs they go through in their relationship.

The only intergenerational romance movies Woody has ever made have been "Manhattan," where he, 40s at the time, dates a 17 year old girl, and also "Husbands and Wives," where he dates one of his students, who is past the age of consent. There is no veiled Soon Yi story that he's ever put to film.

Do your homework next time, this is embarrassing.

[Schuyler Meltdown]

Vicky (perhaps it should be Vichy Cristina Barcelona?) isn't a return to form. It's a bomb.

Anything Else, after a slow start, merits status as an unsung masterwork.

[HollywoodDream]

In my opinion, Woody is one of the most hardworking directors. Year after year he puts out a film, while most directors sit on projects and enjoy breaks between films. Will they are be good? No. I hate the phrase "return to form", because his films are his form. He never left, so why does he have to return?