Deconstructing Harry
The person who has inspired the infamous list that started everything has recently discovered Woody Allen, and wholeheartedly recommended this film to me. Indeed I have found it to be a trademark film of his, and since it is much more sarcastic than his major works Annie Hall and Manhattan, I understand why he liked it so much. Deconstructing Harry is full of witty jokes, absurd characters and it is like travelling through somebody’s life with a huge bag of black humour.
Before I started watching this film, I was told quite a great deal about its story, and what intrigued me the most was how the story itself reminded me a lot of Bergman’s Wild Strawberries. It did not surprise me that the parallel was mentioned on the Wikipedia article of Deconstructing Harry. I love the premise of the main character taking a road trip to receive some award and while doing so, reflecting upon his own life. In Wild Strawberries, we had a clearly positive closure after this trip; in Deconstructing Harry, the main character was indeed deconstructed and we see that while he cannot change himself, he at least has gotten to know about himself. I have found that to be quite brilliant. The end of a film (or a story) can make a stunning difference, and in some cases (like for Two Days in Paris or Dogville), the end can be so good that it gives another, greater sense to the whole film. Although Deconstructing Harry did not impress me in that way, I liked the ending.
In my opinion, the best idea of the film was when Harry became out of focus himself. The blending between imagination and reality had something quite Bergman-like and I think Woody Allen did a brilliant job of implementing that. I simply love his neurotic reactions to whenever something happens to him, and it’s quite refreshing to see that he goes all out and just plays the asshole he probably is.
By the way, my favorite character is the prostitute, she’s just the best. Ultimately, she is the only likeable character and she got quite a funny role for that. Also, ugh, a blow job during her father’s funeral, Woody Allen really is the worst.
On 314’s Woody Allen list, Deconstructing Harry is on number 15, which makes it a very good but not absolutely orgasmic Woody Allen title. I agree on that, and I think it’s very much worth it for another concentrated view of Woody Allen’s hilarious perspective on relationships. I am looking forward to what film Mr. Starting List is going to recommend to me next time we speak (which will possibly be in December this year), I am definitely going to try to lure him into a discussion about random films again.