Whatever Works

Time Richard Corliss

No kidding: this is the feel-good movie of the year and a cinematic soul massage.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Yellnikoff, played with perfect pitch by Larry David.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

What makes Whatever Works so enjoyable, aside from the unusually high number of effective one-liners the script contains (this is Allen's funniest movie since Mighty Aphrodite), are its supporting characters.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Easily one of the loosest, most satisfying comedies to hail from the prolific writer/director in a while.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

At one and the same time it feels like a decent-but-not-great film of his '70s period and a perky and tart entry in his modestly successful revival in the last half-decade. Neat trick.

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott

Ends up being a pleasantly surprising blast from the past, a delightful and amusing touchstone to Allen's comedic prime.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It's a slight-but-enjoyable effort, and it features something a little on the surprising side: an optimistic ending.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Though Clarkson acquits herself reasonably well in a terribly conceived role, her entrance interrupts David’s hilariously twisted mentorship of Wood and sends the movie careening in a far less promising direction.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Whatever Works feels like something out of time and, worse, out of step. Hell, Allen wrote the script back in the 1970s for Zero Mostel.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Features enough genuine laughs to give it decent commercial traction.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

There was always a dreaminess in his vision of the city, but now it feels as distant as the polished floors and the Deco furnishings of the Fred Astaire movies that Boris finds--of course--whenever he turns on the TV.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The fact that Allen wrote the script in the '70s explains something about why his newest movie feels so old.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Woody, please: Go back to the European locales that so energized you of late.

Variety Ronnie Scheib

This far-fetched, deliberately artificial game of musical chairs -- in which mismatched characters encircle, attract and repel each other -- feels forced, often losing itself in excess verbiage.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

It's hard to get past the primitiveness of Allen’s fantasies.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

It isn't the laugh riot of the year.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

As Whatever Works creaks along, the attention-getting nastiness of the first half dissipates and it turns into just another Woody Allen overacted sex farce. Of all the insults hurled about in the film, perhaps the worst is its pandering conclusion. What exactly does Allen take his audience for? A bunch of mindless zombies?

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The result is Allen's weakest film in years.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Whatever Works is very minor Woody, querulous, fitfully funny, and removed from any shared reality.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

None of it works. Or it works too hard. Whatever.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

While the film is slightly better than similar efforts Allen made between the ’90s and his recent time in Europe, it’s both too broad and too shallow.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A sour romantic comedy, only sporadically amusing.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

A belabored trifle that's occasionally amusing but often just bewildering.

Slate Dana Stevens

Most disheartening of all is that, after shooting four films in a row abroad, Allen seems to have lost his feel for New York locations.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Blown opportunity.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

How big a bastard can Woody Allen build a screenplay around and still generate a modicum of audience goodwill? The answer: not this big.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Whether you want to trace this romance back to "La Strada" or Allen's marriage to Soon-Yi Previn is your business, but on-screen it never registers as more than a writer's conceit.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The movie on the whole is joyless. Whatever Works doesn’t.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

"Hello, I Must Be Going," sings Groucho Marx in a clip from "Animal Crackers" at the start of the film. If I'd known what followed, I would have followed his advice.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

This toxic, contemptuous, unforgivably unfunny bagatelle finds Allen at his most misanthropically one-note.