Deconstructing Harry (1997)

Sick Product of a Sick System

Memorable, crazy movie

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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.

I have been looking forward to seeing this film for quite a while, and when I finally had a chance I was pretty quick to take it up. As I started it, I regretted it immediately, I was bored and annoyed. Towards the end, it began to grow on me, but a lot just didn't do it for me.What I liked: I absolutely love the concept and the story. I have not seen any like it. What I like most is that while there is an actual plot and external events, it's more of a character study. They take an unlikable character and give him plenty of depth and sympathy to make up for his brash decisions and opinions. I love Woody Allen as a writer. I also liked the short stories; how they were narrated, the actual relevance they had to Harry's problems and friends, and how they were somewhat diverse. It wasn't just about the message. I both liked and disliked the scenes where they would cut to the same shot. It is very reminiscent of Jean- Loc Goddard's Breathless, which at times gave it a very relaxed, more realistic feel, considering that you could interpret that there were probably moments of silence between conversation, like something that happens in real conversation. However, when you cut in mid-sentence or make too many quick cuts, it's distracting and annoying to try and listen.What I hated: While I love that film is about Harry Block, I hated him. His guts, his obsession with sex, and the fact that he is so damn awkward. I hate Woody Allen as an actor. I appreciate when people stutter, pause, mix up words, or ramble in movies because that's what people do in real life. However, Woody Allen takes it and makes it absolutely obnoxious. His arms flail around, he never makes eye contact (or keeps his eyes on the road while driving).Overall, the word I would use to describe this movie is 'inconsistent,' with some scene being very funny and entertaining, while others made me want to scratch my DVD apart.

Deconstructing Harry is probably Woody Allen's most interesting and controversial film from his troubled 90s period.Coming at the height of turmoil in his personal life, the same year that Deconstructing Harry was released, Allen married Soon Yi Previn and the world was given an insight into their relationship in the rewarding documentary Wild Man Blues (6). Deconstructing Harry sees him slam reality and fiction together, giving (except for one exception) an expletive-free and free-flowing series of fantasy vignettes with jump- cut, foul-mouthed bites of reality. For this reason more than any other it's a film that could upset Allen purists, as his attempt to capture real life sees multiple uses of the word "f***" and even the "c" word coming from Woody's lips on two occasions.Is the film misogynist? Possibly. Woody certainly appears to have anger towards women here, and while the ladies of the night so romantically depicted in the likable-but-bland Mighty Aphrodite (6) are here "whores" and "hookers", there's also more than an element of racial patronage. The adjoinder from an African American prostitute over whether she knows what a black hole is ("Yeah... that's how I make my living") is probably the most repellent line in an Allen film, bar none.Even today Woody is still capable of making watchable films, but they're rarely essential and tend towards the reactionary. Little of his later period has come close to matching the vibrancy and sheer anxiety-based energy of Deconstructing Harry. This is Woody venting his spleen for the masses, and seeming to toy with the "playing himself" questions. It may not be pleasant to watch, but it's never dull.Again, his Jewish fixations can be offensive, though the scenes with his sister and brother-in-law are amongst the funniest in this not quite laugh-a-minute vehicle. I loved the bit where he tells his sister's husband: "I think you're the opposite of paranoid. I think you go around with the insane delusion that people like you". Yeah, most of the jokes at this stage in his career are recycled, but they're given a new take by the level of unsettling acidity contained in this picture. Annie Hall this isn't.The 1990s won't be remembered as a golden age for Allen's work, a period where he was getting more laughs voicing a cartoon ant than in his own movies. Altogether he wrote and directed ten new films, as well as a grating TV movie of his 60s play/film Don't Drink The Water (4). Films like Alice (5), Manhattan Murder Mystery (6) or Shadows and Fog (5) are watchable yet forgettable, the first decade for Allen where the so-so outnumbered the good. Yet there's still some first rate work in his 90s period, with Husbands and Wives (7) treading familiar ground but in subtle new ways. Sweet and Lowdown (7), a biopic of a fictitious jazz musician, brims with invention... though his first musical, Everyone Says I Love You (q.v.) sadly does not.Perhaps most notable in the 90s is the casting of actors to play the "Woody Allen" role, as he was entering his 60s and perhaps straining even his own much-tested formula of "young girl falls for older intellectual". In this regard then Kenneth Brannagh surprisingly does a better job than John Cusack, playing a substitute in the rewarding Celebrity (7), as opposed to Cusack's turn in the jarring Bullets Over Broadway (5). Which brings us back to Deconstructing Harry, as Allen originally had no wish to star in the lead.Deconstructing Harry isn't a pleasant film to watch by any means. It's crass, foul-mouthed and even obnoxious on occasion. But the fragmented, sketchy nature of events and inventive sequences make it an easier viewing experience than an extended narrative. Not only that, but in watching something which appears to be such a personal statement, then it may not be Allen's most likable or accomplished film, but it remains one of the most intriguing.