Anything Else (2003)

Woody Allen's Anything Else is a decent effort, especially when comparing it to Allen films from the same period. The lifeless Hollywood Ending and The Curse of the Jade Scorpion showed a filmmaker whose muse may have left once and for all, but Anything Else corrals some of Allen's most familiar themes and allows him to show some life. Jason Biggs is well cast as Jerry Falk. He comes off like an everyman, offering the perfect counterpoint to the crazies that orbit his world. Even though he has been given dialogue that often rings of old-school Allen, Biggs generally avoids imitating Allen's familiar vocal tics. Christina Ricci is a familiar Allen female -- a sexually voracious, emotionally troubled, attractive woman who brings out the worst in the men who become entangled with her. Ricci, however, is so appealing, and is photographed so adoringly, that she makes the character as sympathetic as possible. Even Allen the filmmaker seems to have been won over by her. Allen the actor takes on a role that is simultaneously familiar, while still being unlike any he has played before. David Dobell is not a cute neurotic, he's a violent paranoid psychotic. This lends an edge to the stereotypical "the world is aligned against me" schtick Allen has mastered, which it had been lacking for a while. Any Allen fan will recognize the recycling of elements from Annie Hall, Broadway Danny Rose, and Manhattan. If the old saying that artists steal rather than borrow is true, at least Woody is pilfering from some of his best work. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide