Deconstructing Harry (1997)

So much average

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Harry Block is a writer, a writer with writer's block. He has a tendency to use experiences and people from his life in his books, a device that annoys some of his friends. Now he is about to receive an award from the university he was kicked out of, causing memories to come flooding back.Written and directed by Woody Allen, and he is in fine form. Mixing some great nostalgic pieces and deeper thoughts with brilliantly funny, off-the-wall humour, Deconstructing Harry brings Allen's two halves - the dramatist and the comedian - together in a wonderful combination.

Deconstructing HarryDeconstructing Harry is a comedy by Woody Allen, starring him as Harry Block. We follow him and his thoughts, while heading to his old school, where he will be honoured for his work as a writer.The cast is very large to mention it all, there is Robin Williams, Demi Moore, Julia Louis- Dreyfous and many more. Everyone of them plays his part very well.Woody Allen, steals the show as the unstable writer, who is unable to love so he cheats to every women he is with. That leads to a bad attitude from everyone to him. We are shown the inner self of Harry, moments of his life that shaped his character and beliefs and also inspired his stories.The fascinating thing about this film is the way it presents those moments. We actually see them as Harry has portrayed them in his mind and stories, that means we see other faces, who are the distiguised versions of him and the people around him.The humorous moments in the film are plenty. I laughed so much at the scene, when the blind grandma. I also liked the scene, where Harry tries to convince Larry (Billy Crystal), who is now the devil, that he is a bigger sinner than him.I almost felt sorry for him, when he learned about his ex girlfriend's and his ex best friend's marriage. It looks like she was the only woman he really loved and cared about.I think this film portrays perfectly the way people become cynical and the way the face problems and other situations these days.One thing I didn't like was the odd cuts in many scenes. I thought maybe it served a purpose, but it still looked bad to me. However, it is a minor thing.To sum it up, it was a really good movie, with plenty of humor. It was fun to watch, so I recommend it. I give it 8/10.

If you think you don't like Woody Allen films, then give this a try.It's definitely my favourite Allen - and I've seen most of 'em.A warning for the faint-hearted: It's got more swearing than all of Allen's films put together (I'm pretty sure that must be statistically true).It also starts with a crude scene of two characters bonking (*Do people still say 'bonking'?*) in front of the blind grandmother who has no idea what's going on.Vulgar with an amazing script.It's bitter, nasty, sarcastic and hilarious, and makes me laugh out loud at a different point every time I re-watch it.Highly recommended.

Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry is a rare film that takes it's title in the most literal ways, both in structure and in storytelling. The plot centers around Harry Block (played as only Allen himself could), a man suffering from writer's block as he prepares to accept an award from his old university, but this is only a loose strain to give the story a narrative though. What it's really focused on is Harry himself, his mind and his characters.In the traditional Allen sense, we get some external monologuing as he explores the mind of this neurotic, stuck and seemingly hopeless man, but he does it in a way that I've never seen him work before. The style of comedy is of course that Allen allure that no one could imitate, but there's also a vulgarity to it that I've never seen him go for before. There are words that I never thought I'd see in a Woody Allen film and the jokes are incredibly graphic, but it gives it this sense of brutal honesty that I haven't experienced from him up to this point. It's absolutely hilarious and quite true, it felt comically in the same sense of Louis C.K.'s work; vulgar and borderline offensive, but totally true to the point where it makes it's audience take a long look in the mirror.As we explore Harry, his few friends and his many exes, we are treated to short vignettes taken from his previous written work. Allen explores the mind of a writer so thoroughly it's mesmerizing, giving us looks into how true the "you write what you know" expression is, with characters that are directly based on his past lovers and himself. Each short story is hilarious in it's own right, but also sheds more light into the character himself, which is the ultimate draw of the film. I've never liked a performance from the writer/director more than I have here. He's got the neurosis and cynicism that he is a master at, but there's also an authenticity and darkness to him that I felt was more exposed than I've seen him before.His editing work is a masterstroke as well as he depicts Harry's real life as fractured, making quick cuts in scenes so that nothing seems to be fluid but it gives it this stream-of-consciousness touch that becomes fluid in itself, in detailing what he wants to accomplish. When we see his work displayed, there's no fragmentation, no awkward cuts, everything runs smoothly. The final scene of the film states the themes a little too strongly, as he practically spoonfeeds them to the audience, but it's a brilliant display of how a writer can become so broken and fractured in his own life that the only way he can achieve any clarity is through his work. A dark, touching, hilarious film with a strong message. Plus, it opens with Julia Louis-Dreyfus getting bent over and plowed in front of a blind woman, and you don't get much funnier than that.