Some top moments: When Robin Williams has "lost focus" simply WILL make you laugh with a sense of respect for how brilliant Allen can be; the conversation between Billy Crystal (I reserve the name of the character he plays, in order NOT to spoil things) and Woody Allen (Harry) is awesome -your typical male-male chat in a sports bar, maybe, but taking place in a rather bizarre setting...
The story comes down to a writer who has lost inspiration and decides (bad idea, perhaps... or perhaps not!) to write about some of the episodes of his live, putting in the open some things that other people (ex-lovers, friends, etc.) would have preferred to keep in the closet.
Anyway, I shouldn't disclose to much, but one thing I have to say: you oughta see this movie. Bt the way, did I mention, there's (as usual) an incredible cast?
"Deconstructing Harry" could be looked at as Woody's love letter to himself. It's about a divorced writer, who during the course of the movie looks back on his life and his work in all it's facets and flaws, jokes and groans. He is to recieve an award for his work from a university, and in true Woody Allen style, he brings his son, a [prostitute], and a dead man in the back seat. Upon his arrival he is greeted and celebrated by all the people and characters who shaped his life and his work. FANTASTIC! Allen pulls off a hilarious plot tinged with that classic Allen wit and humor that shines through to our hearts and brains!
Packed with a great cast including Robin Williams, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Tobey McQuire, and Billy Crystal in a cameo as Satan (a role that he is PERFECT in), Allen once again proves that he always can get the right people for the job.
You could probably rename this movie "Woody on Woody", but that would sound kinda wrong! But it is Woody Allen on Woody Allen, an allegorical film about his own life and work, packed with a great cast, a great plot, fantastic humor and wit, and of course, Woody Allen, the great American humorist, the ringmaster of it all, deconstructing himself to find the true essence of himself.
Deconstructing Harry remains true to the title as the viewer is given a wild postmodern view of a man who wrestles with his own identity amidst the numerous identities he has created around him. Allen's character is, as is often the case with Allen, startlingly autobiographical, while the character also suffers from the fact that his stories are also insultingly biographical.
While Celebrities may surpass this film in vulgarity, Allen comes pretty close in this one, with a level of humour that is almost crude, even with a touch of rare anger. There is no "simple" adultery here; the character is blatantly sexually obsessed. It makes for simultaneously hilarious and sobering comedy.
At the time of watching the film, I wondered if this was perhaps Allen's last film. The moving tribute he gives to the characters he has created over the years is touching, and would have been a good exit for a man whose careers has spanned decades. Retrospectively looking at films Allen has made since then still makes me think it would have been a good end.
