Woody Allen’s tumultuous private life seems to spill sourly into this bad-taste story about a novelist, Harry Block (Allen), whose friends and relatives are used as thinly-disguised characters in his books, despite screams of protest from those he exploits (Judy Davis and Kirstie Alley among them).
But they can’t hate him more than he hates himself, as a fantasy sequence with the Devil (Billy Crystal) makes plain.
Block is suffering from a lack of inspiration for his latest book and is as out of focus with life as actor Robin Williams is – literally – out of focus in one of the film’s funniest ideas.
Told via flashbacks, as Block travels to his old school to be honoured – a homage to Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries – rarely has Allen’s use of a movie as a psychiatrist’s couch been quite so evident.
Harry Block
Woody Allen Joan
Kirstie Alley Doris
Caroline Aaron Richard
Bob Balaban Ken
Richard Benjamin Burt
Eric Bogosian Larry
Billy Crystal Lucy
Judy Davis Cookie
Hazelle Goodman Beth Kramer
Mariel Hemingway Jane
Amy Irving Grace
Julie Kavner Leslie
Julia Louis-Dreyfus Harvey Stern
Tobey Maguire Helen
Demi Moore Fay
Elisabeth Shue Paul Epstein
Stanley Tucci Mel
Robin Williams
