Word: allen
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...portrait of a woman who is vulnerable yet strong. Accordingly, we are subjected to long stretches of Grier, punctuated with experimental or retro techniques. Grier gets a '70s long-shot in which we wait for her to walk towards us from 50 feet away (sent up hilariously by Woody Allen in Annie Hall). The screen goes blurry for Forster's bondsman as he thinks. Grier and Jackson carry on an argument behind glass doors...
...talented Ang Lee directs this film about uneasy family relationships in the restless, promiscuous '70s with crystalline precision. As the leaders of two archly funny but disturbingly bleak suburban clans, Kevin Kline, Joan Allen and Sigourney Weaver give refreshingly honest performances, but the film's ending offers their characters no hint of redemption. The ice storm, as a natural symbol of change and the wiping away of sins, is like Noah's flood without the rainbow. --Erwin R. Rosinberg...
Where to start? Here's the short version: Deconstructing Harry, the new movie from writer-director-actor Woody Allen is a) very funny, b) very unfunny, c) very personal, d) strangely detached, e) dense as hell and f) strangely unsatisfying. Here's the long version...
...fragmented, occasionally surrealistic style meant to reflect the mental state of its protagonist, Deconstructing Harry tells the story of Harry Block (Allen) a--surprise--neurotic writer with a penchant for antidepressants, prostitutes and incorporating the details of his personal life into his literature. For the first time in his life, he's suffering from writer's block--get it? Harry...Block. Via flashbacks and vignettes representing Block's fiction, the film relates the author's psychosexual hangups, difficulties with fidelity and issues with religion. The movie is loosely structured around Block's repeated attempts to find someone to accompany...
...Most of the humor here is fresh, dead-on and perfectly timed. From the miscellaneous tortured souls ("What did you do?" "I invented aluminum siding") in the netherworld to its wonderfully nefarious ruler ("I ran a Hollywood studio for two years, but you can't trust those people"), Allen's pen bleeds snappy oneliners and razor-sharp satire. If only the preceding hour of the film had been as enjoyable...