Nonureva Really Surprised!

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Bento de Espinosa This is easily Woody Allen's best movie. It is funny, daring, provoking, very well played and very critical of religion, especially of the idea of "chosen people", which is so important for most Jews, but is present also in the minds of Christians, who think they are something special because they believe in an invisible being of an ancient book."Tradition is the illusion of permanence." - Woody Allen (Deconstructing Harry)A must see!

J Besser This is definitely an R rated Woody Allen movie. The language is only shocking because it's so unlike most of the films Woody has made. There's even nudity in it. That said, most of the sex jokes aren't very funny. Richard Benjamin and Julia Louis-Dreyfus' scene is not funny and embarrassing to watch. Even though Woody's character is a creep, the movie is entertaining.

Rockwell_Cronenberg Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry is a rare film that takes it's title in the most literal ways, both in structure and in storytelling. The plot centers around Harry Block (played as only Allen himself could), a man suffering from writer's block as he prepares to accept an award from his old university, but this is only a loose strain to give the story a narrative though. What it's really focused on is Harry himself, his mind and his characters.In the traditional Allen sense, we get some external monologuing as he explores the mind of this neurotic, stuck and seemingly hopeless man, but he does it in a way that I've never seen him work before. The style of comedy is of course that Allen allure that no one could imitate, but there's also a vulgarity to it that I've never seen him go for before. There are words that I never thought I'd see in a Woody Allen film and the jokes are incredibly graphic, but it gives it this sense of brutal honesty that I haven't experienced from him up to this point. It's absolutely hilarious and quite true, it felt comically in the same sense of Louis C.K.'s work; vulgar and borderline offensive, but totally true to the point where it makes it's audience take a long look in the mirror.As we explore Harry, his few friends and his many exes, we are treated to short vignettes taken from his previous written work. Allen explores the mind of a writer so thoroughly it's mesmerizing, giving us looks into how true the "you write what you know" expression is, with characters that are directly based on his past lovers and himself. Each short story is hilarious in it's own right, but also sheds more light into the character himself, which is the ultimate draw of the film. I've never liked a performance from the writer/director more than I have here. He's got the neurosis and cynicism that he is a master at, but there's also an authenticity and darkness to him that I felt was more exposed than I've seen him before.His editing work is a masterstroke as well as he depicts Harry's real life as fractured, making quick cuts in scenes so that nothing seems to be fluid but it gives it this stream-of-consciousness touch that becomes fluid in itself, in detailing what he wants to accomplish. When we see his work displayed, there's no fragmentation, no awkward cuts, everything runs smoothly. The final scene of the film states the themes a little too strongly, as he practically spoonfeeds them to the audience, but it's a brilliant display of how a writer can become so broken and fractured in his own life that the only way he can achieve any clarity is through his work. A dark, touching, hilarious film with a strong message. Plus, it opens with Julia Louis-Dreyfus getting bent over and plowed in front of a blind woman, and you don't get much funnier than that.

runamokprods I recently re-watched this on DVD and was surprised to find I liked it much more than on seeing it in the theater on it's initial release. (Something that's happened to me with a number of more recent Woody Allen films).I recalled it as misogynistic and self serving. While it still has moments of those qualities, it feels like Allen is toughest of all on himself. But is he tough enough? This is certainly the worst, most abrasive and selfish Allen has ever let himself look on screen, but there was still a feeling of pulling his self-aimed punches just a bit. Sort of an "All That Jazz" lite. The film has a good number of very funny lines, and creative ideas (Robin Williams as an out- of-focus actor is a brilliant concept), and its fun to see a filmmaker Allen's age pushing his style limits, with jump cuts and multi-layered construction. Still, it starts to repeat its own ideas after a while, both literally and thematically, and the ending feels a bit wimpy. While far from Allen's best, its still a dense, funny, thoughtful film, something increasingly rare in American cinema.