# Deconstructing Harry (1997)

### reviewed by
Nicholas Amado

    Deconstructing Harry
    Directed by Woody Allen
    Starring: Everybody

Woody Allen's latest film, Deconstructing Harry, is a fine addition to his masterful body of work. It doesn't have the sweetness of Annie Hall, or the goofiness of Sleeper. What it does have is originality that blends well with the bitterness, the autobiographical aspects, and the brash humor. Allen has taken a new approach technically with "Harry" while he returns to some of his classical short story writing, many traces of which can be seen here.

Harry is a writer who has just completed a book, based strongly on his experiences, that upsets all of the women in his life. The film is a montage of his current predicament and scenes played out on screen with other actors in his role. (Richard Benjamin, Stanley Tucci and Tobey Maguire all play Harry in various embelished stories from the book.) Occasionally, to break even further with conventional narrative, Harry will meet these characters who are based on himself and have conversations with them. Though it doesn't really matter, this film doesn't flow terribly well, but it is obvious that Allen doesn't want it to.

One of the technical aspects that Allen employs here is a unique editing approach. Much of the film consists of scenes in which dialogue is cut abruptly to flash forward only a few seconds in time. Cuts will also be made to show brief passages in time. For example, a character may be sitting in one position and rather than show them shift in their chair, a quick cut will be made to their new position. It is extremely unique and works well with the overall concept of the film, which is expressed in the title, deconstructing this writer and all of his immoralities.

One of the best sequences in the film involves an "out of focus" Robin Williams, which must be seen to be believed. It is one of the most original and hilarious concepts I have seen in modern filmmaking. That brief sequence alone is enough for me to recommend this picture to even those who are not Allen fans.

The language in Deconstructing Harry is much more abrasive than in most of his films. It helps to illustrate the nastiness of Allen's character who is as neurotic and whiny as he always was, but now has a bit of a gruff and bitter edge. The film is fun for many reasons, not the least of which is the cast which includes Elizabeth Shue, Billy Crystal, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Demi Moore, Eric Bogosian, Amy Irving, Judy Davis, Julie Kavner, Kirstie Alley and Robin Williams. There are many lines in the film that you will probably be using for years to come. And Allen isn't afraid to let inventive filmmaking take the place of solid narrative here. Plus, fans of his books will see many references to old stories. Deconstructing Harry is strange to say the least, but a must for Allen fans and most likely enjoyable for anyone who wants a good laugh.

3 stars Copyright (C) 1997 Nick Amado

I urge glowing praise and nasty criticism. Email me: Namado@concentric.net

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews