FILM REVIEWS

New Line/Fine Line

In his new, nasty comedy, “Deconstrcuting Harry,”Woody Allen plays Harry Block, a foul-mouthed, eccontric author who’s despised by all around him.

The list of complaints and charges against him is endless.  His ex-wives and mistresesses resent his constant lying, philandering, unreliablity—they claim he lacks any ethics or morals.  His family objects to the way he’s been using, abusing and manipulating them to serve his own causes and his persoonal welfare.

Despite being a middle-age man (Allen was 62 when he played the role), Harry has never really grown up.  Though benefiting from an established reputation as a novelist, Harry has already spent the latest advance from his publisher without writing a single word.

He’s been married, but contiues to be a womanizer who’s obsessed with sex.  We learn tht while in therapay, he married one of his psychologists but he marriage ended just as the previous ones.

Tale revolves around a workable gimmick.  Harry is on his way to Adair College to receive a life achievement award. Nervous, he needs a companion to travel with him.  But who will he take? Harry’s latest girlfriend Fay has chosen this moment to marry his best friend Larry, while another, presumably close friend, Richard, had suffered heart attack and can’t make the trip either.  Moreover, despite his wish to have his son Hilly see him is denied by the refusal of the boy’s psychiatrist mother to let him attend the ceremony.

Meanwhile, Lucy, Block’s former sister in-law, is furious that Harry has, in his latest book, described, in vivid detail, their clandestine relationship.

Oscar Nominations: 1

Original Screenplay: Woody Allen

Oscar Awards: None

Oscar Context:

The winners of the Original Screenplay Oscar were Ben Affleck and Matt Damon for “Good Will Hunting.”

The other nomineess were: James L. Brooks for “As Good As It Gets,” Paul Thomas Anderson for “Boogie Nights,” and the British comedy, “The Full Monty.”

Cast

Harry Block (Woody Allen)

Doris (Caroline Aaron)

Joan Block (Kirstie Alley)

Richard (Bob Balaban)

Ken (Richard Benjamin)

Burt (Eric Bogosian)

Satan/Larry (Billy Crystal)

Credits

Produced by Jean Doumanian

Directed and written by Woody Allen

Camera: Carlo Di Palma

Editor: Susan E. Morse

Production Design: Santo Loquasto

Costumes: Suzy Benzinger

Running Time: 95 Minutes

Box-Office: $10,686,841