Deconstructing Harry (1997)

n 1997, Woody Allen released his most bitter film since Stardust Memories over 15 years before. The film, Deconstructing Harry, is a bitter, cynical, and often funny look at an art and the artist, a vaguely concealed self-portrait of Allen himself, played mostly for humor. It is also one of the best films he made in the 1990s (not bad for a guy who makes at least one film every year.)

The story centers around Allen's character, Harry Block, a fairly successful writer who uses his friends and family in his "fictional" stories - changing names from Janet to Jane, but leaving the main details of their lives at the center of his stories, flattering or not. As a result, he has very few friends and very many enemies, the result of spinning his friends' real lives into, as Judy Davis sarcastically derides it, "literary gold".

Allen gives us little time to adjust to the film, right off the bat we are thrown immediately into the story with a bizarre scene involving an affair, oral sex, a blind grandmother and onions. Soon, we cut to "real life" and begin to realize this is merely one of Block's stories, not an actual scene in the film. But before Allen lets you laugh too hard, he throws us into an amazing scene between Allen and Judy Davis, who plays the sister of Allen's ex-wife. They had an affair together during the marriage, and Allen had written about it in one of his stories, embellishing it for humor, but barely trying to disguise the character's identities (the aforementioned "Janet" to "Jane" name change). This raw scene throws us right into the story, and features a powerhouse of a performance from Davis, an actress Allen has used several times (Husbands and Wives, Celebrity). She threatens to shoot him, even brings a gun out and aims it at him. The only way Block is able to save his own life is by telling her a story.

The film then jumps into the story being told and we are soon following Tobey Maguire (then a relative unknown) through a bizarre, O. Henry-type story scene involving a chinese prostitute, mistaken identity and the appearance of Death himself. As the second of these 'stories' to crop up in the actual film, it quickly becomes apparent that Allen delights in weaving these short tales into the narrative of the film itself, creating an often humerous but more often revealing diversion. The style of the film - jumping from life to fiction and back again, employing an odd, repeated editing style (hard to describe at best), and a little of the dizying style of camerawork used a few years previous in Husbands and Wives - is consistently fresh, innovative and appealing, something Allen's not always associated with. On two different instances, Block's created characters actually show up in the film to give him advice in real life (echoing the fictional characters come to life scenario of Purple Rose of Cairo).

The premise of the story soon emerges as Harry Block is invited to his old college to accept an award honoring his career as a writer. The irony here, of course, is that he has no one really to share it with, he has no real friends, a string of ex-wives and lovers, and a child he doesn't have custody of. Desparate for someone to share the experience with, he ultimately ends up taking along a black prostitute, a long lost (and quite sick) friend, and his son, whom he decides to kidnap from school. Shades of Bergman's Wild Strawberries abound in the ensuing road trip, with even the eventual destination being similar to that of Isak Borg's in the Bergman masterpiece. The journey to the college is littered with various people and several of Block's rather surreal stories.

The rather amazing thing about Deconstructing Harry is that, while Allen is often bitter in the film, lashing out at detractors and the like, and plays an essentially unlikeable main character, he is still able to turn out a brilliant and even at times warm film that is filled with humor, drama, and life. The screenplay was nominated for an Oscar, and the ensemble cast, one of the biggest Allen has ever used (Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Elizabeth Shue, Tobey Maguire, Julie Kavner, Kirstie Alley, Demi Moore, Eric Bognosian, and Stanley Tucci among others) all but guarantees that, even if you're not an Allen fan and might find this film not to your particular liking, there is no way you will ever be bored by it. Intelligent, funny, and important all at once, Deconstructing Harry is necessary viewing for any Allen fan, even the casual one, and might be an interesting piece to watch if you had written him off earlier in his career.

Release Date: December 12, 1997

Domestic Total Gross: $10,686,841

Distributor: Fine Line

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