Deconstructing Harry Reviews

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.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Wonderfully enjoyable: classic Woody Allen.

Borrowing the structure of Bergman's Wild Strawberries, but filling it with the unmistakeable style of Woody Allen, this is certainly one of his funniest and most enjoyable films, and a great example of how Woody (as he is clearly getting older) can deploy a variety of actors to fill out the younger roles without losing his wit.

Robin Williams 'out of focus' role is unexpectedly hilarious, the dialogue contains classic Allen witticisms, and film buffs will revel in the frequent, casual references to the likes of Truffaut's Baisers Voles and Fellini's 8 1/2.

Though not exactly 'original', his borrowings from Wild Strawberries, particularly the scenes in which he is looking in on past events, perfectly suit Allen's vision for the film, markedly distinguishing it from the brilliant, yet very different tone of Bergman's film, as he cleverly 'steals' from other films to create a pastiche that is entirely his own.

This film really does deserve a consideration alongside the likes of Manhattan & Annie Hall; a classic Woody Allen comedy.

Potential

This film is about a writer and the stories that he writes. The best bits of the film are when his stories are acted out on screen, its a shame that some of these stories werent made into proper films as they would have been funnier then Deconstucting Harry. However a watchable film but which I felt could have been so much better.

Brilliant! Woody allen does what he does best. Plays himself in an overly nurotic way. Very Funny

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.

Classic Woody Allen

One of the few Woody Allen features that is actually laugh-out-loud funny. If you don't mind very strong language you will enjoy this one.

Sketchy

As a teenager, I was a massive fan of Woody Allen. Gradually, through the 90s, I became increasingly disappionted with his films after 'Hannah and Her Sisters'. This movie is a return to form, of sorts. There are some great comic moments, which could be all-time classics. Unfortunately, the narrative is less than masterful and leaves you uninterested in the main character. Perhaps we are overfamiliar with Allen the neurotic, now. I never quite believed (or cared about) him. You may think this is Allen laying himself bare, but he is clearly playing with the audience - the movie is about life immitating art. The great comic moments and the frequent appearance of familiar comic faces turn this into more of a string of sketches with a light narrative to keep the whole thing tied together.

Deconstructing Harry

At last, Woody Allen plays a different character, and really impresses! His recent films can't hold a candle to his classics from the 70's and early 80's, but this is one of the most under-rated filsm of his career. Woody plays a writer so wrapped up in his own world that he fails to see the pain he is causing his friends and family - cue lots of flashbacks, some incredible cameo roles, and some unforgettable cinematic tricks (Robin Williams as you've never seen him before!). This has a real nasty streak, some fantastic black humour, and a winning ending. It won't be to everyone's taste, but this is Woody at his best - recommended, but don't watch with Grandma!

in foucus for once

Another amazing comic masterpiece by woody Allen, the script was beautifully written. The confrontation between reality and fictional character was cleverly arranged. It carries out Woody trademark with his self-indulgent life, torn between love, sex and death. Much subtle metaphor was funnily applied into the film, like out of focus man, and it was so great, I get the film my self. Pay a wonderful homage to Woody’s miserable life, always allow us to take a short beak, and just realise we are not doing too bad.

[Highly rated reviewer]

First-rate Woody

An acerbic attack on, well, it looks very much like on Woody himself, as Allen takes aim at a priapic, self-obsessed artist known for recycling his own obsessions in his novels, who suddenly finds himself alone and vulnerable at a time when he should be celebrating.

Mixing flashbacks and fictional episodes with Harry's gradual realisation of the state he's in, the film lacks a little focus (it's so bitter) and a lot of warmth (the Woody of the seventies and eighties has long since vanished), but it's laugh-out-loud funny, and, the best thing I can say, a worthy tribute to the film on which it's modelled, Bergman's 'Wild strawberries'.