Anything Else review

The law of diminishing returns sadly seems to be applicable to the career of Woody Allen. The one-time great director has made very few good films in the last ten years (Bullets Over Broadway and Small Time Crooks being probably the best of the bunch), and a number of stinkers (his last, Hollywood Ending, wasn't even picked up for British distribution). Anything Else is amiable enough and a slight improvement on Hollywood Ending, but only diehard fans need apply for tickets.

Although the film is noticeably being marketed as a non-Woody Allen film, by concentrating on stars Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci, all of Allen's hallmark traits are there. Neurotic New Yorkers squabble over their love lives and the results are as predictable as watching a re-run of Annie Hall, although still not quite as satisfactory.

Biggs, familiar as the goofball who sticks his penis in a pie, stars as Jerry Falk (a classic Allen moniker), a young comedy writer who has Danny DeVito as his agent. When he meets Amanda (Christina Ricci) and falls for her ample charms, he dumps his girlfriend and moves in with his new belle. But as beautiful as she is, she is also somewhat difficult, giving Jerry writer's block as well as declaring a ban on sex shortly after they move in together.

Suspicious that Amanda may be cheating on him in one of her acting or AA classes, Jerry turns to his friend and mentor Dobel (Allen) for advice, and all of Allen's familiar insecurities about the female sex are readily apparent. Jerry struggles on, impotent in both the bedroom and at the typewriter, while Amanda's mother (Stockard Channing) moves in to take drugs and have some toyboy lovers over for the evening. Granted there are some amusing slapstick moments with both her and Allen's character.

It's all pleasant enough, but will be all too familiar to long-term Allen fans for anything substantially new to emerge. Ricci and Biggs are energetic enough, but it's clear that Biggs is simply a cypher for the roles Allen once relished (at 68 even he probably realised that a relationship with Ricci would be somewhat unconvincing). It's certainly not the time for Allen to be thinking about throwing in the towel, but fans will be clamouring for some new ideas from the old master as he approaches his dotage.