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Anything Else

2003, Movie, R, 96 mins

Anything Else: Review

ANYTHING ELSE
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Though strikingly similar to ANNIE HALL (1977), Woody Allen's tale of a young man hobbled by neuroses has its share of funny moments and shows off New York City to great advantage. Divorced 21-year-old comedy writer Jerry Falk (Jason Biggs) has spent his brief adult life in and out of therapy, trying to cope with his fear of sleeping alone and his inability to say goodbye; the latter explains why he's his manager's (Danny DeVito) only client and tolerates his girlfriend, Amanda's (Christina Ricci), insufferable behavior. He fell in love at first sight with the waifish aspiring actress; she claims that she was equally smitten: "Couldn't you tell from the way I was ignoring you?" Their affair was torrid, but now that they're living together their mutual passion has dwindled; they haven't had sex in six months and she hyperventilates at his touch. Amanda's eccentric mother (Stockard Channing), a cabaret singer, has moved in with them on a semi-permanent basis, and there's more — Amanda encourages Jerry to sleep with other women and has serious weight issues, alternating diet-pill fueled abstinence with world class binges: She can polish off a Sara Lee cheesecake, leftover spaghetti, a lobster tail, a chicken pot pie and some eggs in one sitting. Jerry escapes by taking long walks in Central Park with fellow comedy writer David Dobel (Allen), during which the older man rants on a range of pet topics — notably the insidious prevalence of anti-Semitism — and shares tips like, "What you don't know won't hurt you. It will kill you." Despite his own patent eccentricities, David does his best to steer Jerry in the direction of self-sufficiency. The film founders during a series of uncomfortable scenes involving Biggs and DeVito, whose performance verges on painful caricature, but Ricci is adorable and delivers Allen's sharp dialogue with real flare. Biggs — known primarily for his broadly comic role in the AMERICAN PIE trilogy — shows unexpected intelligence in the kind of role that Allen used to write for himself. Allen in turn deserves credit for not casting himself as Ricci's love interest, bringing his trademark expected wit and sparkle to a more appropriate role. The most original thing about the film is its marketing campaign, which aggressively downplays Allen's name in a bid to attract a younger audience. leave a comment --Angel Cohn
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