Starring: Caroline Aaron, Kirstie Alley, Bob Balaban, Richard Benjamin, Eric Bogosian Directed By: Woody Allen Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC Label: New Line Home Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: May 27, 1998 Running Time: 96 minutes Theatrical Release Date: December 12, 1997
Amazon.com essential video: Woody Allen roared back at his detractors with Deconstructing Harry, a bitterly funny treatise about the creative process. Known to mine his often tumultuous personal life for his movies, the embattled writer-director-star didn't bother to make his alter ego likable in this movie: Harry Block (Allen) pops pills, frequents prostitutes, and cheats on the women in his life, then writes about their foibles in thinly disguised fiction. No wonder they're all furious with him. As Harry journeys to his alma mater with a hooker, ill pal, and kidnapped son, a series of flashbacks unravel, juxtaposing Harry's relationships with their "slightly exaggerated" fictional counterparts. There are amusing cameos throughout, including a humorous turn by Demi Moore as a fictitious ex-wife who "became Jewish with a vengeance," and Billy Crystal as the devil who found Hollywood too nasty for his liking. The humor is dark and caustic, but well worth it; Deconstructing Harry is a near-brilliant mediation on the sometimes queasy relationship between art, creator, and critic. --Diane Garrett
A wonderfully constructed comedy that helps us deconstruct ourselves... Getting to know Woody Allen's filmography as of late has been a real trip, and while there have been some misses for me, for the most part I have become a real fan of his work. `Deconstructing Harry' may very well be one of my favorites. The film is an uproarious look at the struggle one makes to create something, about the fact that fiction truly imitates life and that life, in its rawest of forms, is truly remarkable.
Woody Allen stars as Harry Block, a famous writer who is suffering from a serious case of writers block. While he's struggling with this artistic roadblock he is also presented with the honor of being the center of a University tribute, as the school that once threw him out wants to give him an award. Now, more than ever, Harry is faced with his own slew of insecurities as he contemplates why no one in his life likes him. As he struggles to find someone to accompany him to his awards ceremony he realizes that the decisions he has made in life has segregated him from those he loves, or at one time loved. He's been unfaithful to every wife he's ever had and has single-handedly destroyed the reputations of his family, friends and lovers in his novels. No one can stand him and this forces Harry to reach down inside himself to find the reasons why.
The process he uses is what really makes this film so unbelievable good.
Telling the story of his life through a series of short stories he in fact wrote, Harry exposes his inner feelings through characters based on himself and others around him. He explores his romantic relationships and his countless infidelities; his feelings on marriage and loyalty and even success. He tackles his views on religion and culture and family, all of which help construct (or deconstruct) this man from the inside out.
The film is littered with countless supporting actors who just devour the screenplay that Woody delivers to them with such conviction and comedic excellence. Even actors who have very small roles (Robin Williams) make the most of their limited screen time to deliver performances that elevate the films core. Billy Crystal and Elizabeth Shue are phenomenal and Demi Moore and Bob Balaban (of Christopher Guest fame) are both scene stealers. The real standout here, aside from Woody himself, is Kirstie Alley who just dominates as Harry's ex-wife Joan. She has only a few scenes, and in each scene she is ranting and yelling and throwing a fit, but that fit is seriously comedic genius, rich with honest emotion and brutal delivery.
The real star of the show is Woody's brilliant script (which really should have won the Oscar) for it is rich with wit and a truism that makes the film so much more effective than your average comedy. Harry Block is far from a likable guy, but underneath it all he is an extremely relatable guy, someone who we can see within ourselves. `Deconstructing Harry' is a smart and successful look at deconstructing ourselves.
a masterpiece One of the funniest movies ever made.
Woody Allen is an acquired taste, like oysters. If you like'm on the half shell, he hit this crustacean out of the lagoon.
The "elevator to hell" bit had me in tears. Pookie the hooker, and the whole crew on the road trip to the university -- well, who else but Woody Allen conjures up this kind of stuff and puts it on film?
Writing, acting, directing...everyone was in synch with Mr. Allen's history, angst, sturm, drang and reputation.
An absolute masterpiece.
Thanks, Woody.
Writer's Block When a writer faces that inevitable bugaboo...writer's block...he reviews his life, trying to examine all his mistakes, character flaws and foibles. His examination is depicted in a fragmented fashion, as if he is truly "deconstructing" his self.
As the final picture emerges, he is in a position to address his past, and in doing so, he is freed to write again.
Fascinating portrayal of the creative process.
Woody Redux Okay, I will admit that finally after almost a year of watching or re-watching films that the comedic legend Woody Allen wrote, directed, played in or produced I am Woody-ed out. Moreover, there is a reason for that beyond fatigue. As I have pointed out previously in this space if one lives long enough and produces enough work then one is bound to repeat oneself. And that is what has happened to brother Allen here.
Allen's premise has been used before as he plays the part of Harry, a writer (what else?) down with a case of writer's block who is also having romantic problems (again, what else?) because the young woman he truly, if belatedly, loves is getting married to a lesser writer. Sound familiar? There are many individually funny moments, mainly by Allen, along the way even if not enough to sustain the film. Naturally, as is usually the case in an Allen feature in the end things are not qualitatively more resolved than at the beginning. Well that, after all, is life.
A nice cinematic touch used here is Harry's (Allen's) sequencing shots to show how autobiographical most novels and short stories really are. Changing the actors in the `real life' story and in the `made up' stories does this well. That part also gets nicely put together at the end. No so nice here, and a bit unusual for an Allen film, is the extensive use of profanity by Allen and the rest of the cast to show their frustrations with the various antics that Harry is up to and in their own lives. Everything is moreover just a bit too frantic, partly to justify the profanity it would seem. That may tell the tale of why I had a problem with this film, as well. If you must see a Woody Allen film you must see Annie Hall or Manhattan, if you have an off hour and one half watch this.
Wow...This is a Stinker Usually there's at least a few laughs in a Woody Allen movie, and many of them have more than a few.
But this one was just AWFUL. Ten times the neuroses and ten times the vulgarity of a typical Allen film. Overall a totally graceless, droning film experience which I regretted having. I really can't believe this movie get so many glowing reviews here. Not to mention that most of the humor is quite adolescent.
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