Whatever Works

Romantic comedy directed by Woody Allen, based on a script he originally wrote in the late 1970s.

Larry David stars as 60-something New Yorker Boris Yellnikoff, a ranting, reclusive misanthrope who expounds his jaded ideologies on love, religion and the (lack of) meaning of life to the remaining few friends who have stuck around to listen.

His nihilistic world view finally shifts after he reluctantly takes in 20-year-old runaway Melodie St Ann Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood), a Southern country girl from the Bible-thumping backwoods of Louisiana, and an unlikely friendship develops between the two.

The film marks Allen's return to his familiar New York territory after making three films set in London and one in Barcelona.