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Deconstructing Harry
1997
Upon returning in glory to the college from which he was expelled, sexually voracious and dyspeptic writer Harry Block can find no companions for his trip--except, that is, for a hooker he's hired. The trouble with Harry, as it were, is that he's alienated everyone in his life, from a string of wives and psychotherapists to all .. Read more
| Starring | Woody Allen, Demi Moore, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal |
|---|---|
| Director | Woody Allen |
| Genres | Comedy |
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Deconstructing Harry
Upon returning in glory to the college from which he was expelled, sexually voracious and dyspeptic writer Harry Block can find no companions for his trip--except, that is, for a hooker he's hired. The trouble with Harry, as it were, is that he's alienated everyone in his life, from a string of wives and psychotherapists to all his living relatives, by rehashing their dirty little secrets in his fatuous, mean-spirited writing. A new height of self-loathing for introspective auteur Allen, who meditates upon a self-reflection theme based on Bergman's WILD STRAWBERRIES.
| Starring | Woody Allen, Demi Moore, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Elisabeth Shue, Kirstie Alley, Bob Balaban, Richard Benjamin, Eric Bogosian, Judy Davis, Mariel Hemingway, Amy Irving, Julie Kavner, Stanley Tucci, Caroline Aaron, Tobey Maguire, Juli |
|---|---|
| Director | Woody Allen |
| Studio | WALT DISNEY STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 32 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Comedy |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 15 Jun 2006 Production year: 1997 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (6)
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Woody Allen's tumultuous private life seems to spill sourly into this brilliant bad-taste story about a novelist, Harry Block (Allen), whose friends and relatives are used as thinly-disguised characters in his books, despite screams of protest from those he exploits (Judy Davis and Kirstie Alley among them). But they can't hate him more than he hates himself, as a fantasy sequence with the Devil (Billy Crystal) makes plain. Block is suffering from a lack of inspiration for his latest book and is as out of focus with life as actor Robin Williams is — literally — out of focus in one of the film's funniest ideas. Told via flashbacks, as Block travels to his old school to be honoured — a homage to Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries — rarely has Allen's use of a movie as a psychiatrist's couch been quite so evident.
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Witty, discursive comedy, shuttling between the realities of a novelist's life and the fictions he makes from them; it has some excellent jokes and moments of hilarious farce, but there is no centre to hold it all together.
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Most helpful member's review
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15 out of 15 people found this review helpful
One of Allen's finest, certainly his most revealing
Woody Allen's extraordinary film is one of the most self-critical and revealing films I've seen for some time. Allen stars as Harry Block, a writer who has lost a number of his friends because the characters in his latest novel bear a scarcely concealed resemblance to their lives. From this point 'Deconstructing Harry' skips between Harry's torment and scenes from the novel.
What makes this film so special is the aggression Allen shows in analysing his own life and art, any criticism you can make of him he's probably made it himself first. Added to this is the fact that it's easily one of Allen's funniest and most sustained recent features. Certainly the film is his most foul-mouthed and bitter(alongside 1992's Husbands and Wives), but it's a lot more satisfying than his recent insipid comedies.
Allen also employs some inspired fantasy sequences including Robin Williams as an actor literally losing focus and a meeting with Satan(Billy Crystal). Best of all is the wife who interrogates her husband about his former life and dicovers some incredible secrets.
These scenes help break up the narrative and provide a balance to Allen's attempts at 'Deconstructing Woody'. Mean-spirited and self-obsessed it may be but rarely has the use of film as a psychiatric's couch been so entertaining. -
Most recent members' review
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1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Not his best
A typical woody film, containing love, adultery, authors etc, it certainly is not his best, but it sure aint his worst either. Give it a go if ure a fan.
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News and features
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Whatever Happened to Woody Allen?
- 21 May 2008
He's made (at least!) a film a year since 1970, a record that's all the more remarkable when you realise that he's written and directed all of them, and starred in most. They include some of the best-loved and most quoted comedies in cinema history: Annie Hall, Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters take some beating, and that's to ignore "the early, funny ones" (Sleeper, Love and Death, Bananas); the lovely miniatures from what I consider his finest period (the early 80s gave us Broadway Danny... Read more
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