Deconstructing Harry really made me want to sit down with the 1997 version of Woody Allen and ask him if there was anything he wanted to get off his chest. I've never seen a more seemingly angry and hateful Woody Allen than I have through that film. I'm not sure, as I choose to never speculate, how much of Deconstructing Harry was autobiographical. How much of the artist who suffered from a serious bout of writer's block who placed events and people of his own life under thin veils in his novels left with no one but his work to help him re-evaluate his own life was Woody Allen? I shudder to flesh any air of Woody Allen identity in his 1997 film, for my own sake, if nothing else given how seemingly angry and hateful the film turned out to be.Harry Block (Woody Allen) a writer, draws much inspiration from his own life. Growing up atheist in a Jewish home, Harry has used his parents and family as inspiration for his novels and short stories. Harry has also written about his analyst, his ex-wives and pretty much any event that has ever happened to him. His writing has made a comfortable life for him and led to an honor he is about to receive for his work. Dealing with a heavy bout of writer's block, Harry is also tasked with facing many of those he has written about who are angry to have been used solely to further his career. Harry didn't take many pains to hide those people or events from his life that he wrote about, because of this transparency, it is known the world over who he is referring to in each of his stories. The cold response Harry has received from the ones who should be most proud of him as he is being honored has caused him to re- evaluate his life and face some difficult truths. Through therapy, Harry realizes that he has self-sabotaged his relationships resulting in all three of his marriages ending in divorce. On a rogue drive with the son he rarely gets to see, Harry looks back at his life and the characters in his stories--each one at a different stage in his own life in an attempt to determine what he can do to turn his life around.I've always appreciated the way in which Woody Allen writes women, even to the degree of having multiple female protagonists in his films. Deconstructing Harry, however, illustrates women as shrill archetypes that only exist to bring about the downfall of any men in their lives and be a thorough annoyance along the way. Even aside from the illustration of women in Deconstructing Harry, the men are just as stereotypical. The film treats people in general with an air of disgust and aggression not typical for a Woody Allen film. Even in a film of Woody's that I dislike, I can appreciate the artistic elements of it. The literal out of focus character as Harry attempted to evaluate his life was a brilliant touch and one that softened an otherwise dismal outing.

If you think you don't like Woody Allen films, then give this a try.It's definitely my favourite Allen - and I've seen most of 'em.A warning for the faint-hearted: It's got more swearing than all of Allen's films put together (I'm pretty sure that must be statistically true).It also starts with a crude scene of two characters bonking (*Do people still say 'bonking'?*) in front of the blind grandmother who has no idea what's going on.Vulgar with an amazing script.It's bitter, nasty, sarcastic and hilarious, and makes me laugh out loud at a different point every time I re-watch it.Highly recommended.

Deconstructing Harry is, in my opinion, one of Woody Allen's most underrated films. Often overlooked by a careers' worth of other more well known work, this late 90's Drama plays out a relationship seldom looked at; the relationship between a writer and their intellectual property. The characters in this film act as friends and loved ones, or rather memories of friends and loved ones. It's a look inside the mind of a neurotic writer, a writer whose life is both hitting a professional peak, while simultaneously hitting a personal low. Harry Block (Woody Allen), is dealing with past demons as well as present hurdles, all while preparing to receive a major award. To help deal with this accumulation of problems, characters from his fictional stories seep into his reality.

Deconstructing Harry is probably Woody Allen's most interesting and controversial film from his troubled 90s period.Coming at the height of turmoil in his personal life, the same year that Deconstructing Harry was released, Allen married Soon Yi Previn and the world was given an insight into their relationship in the rewarding documentary Wild Man Blues (6). Deconstructing Harry sees him slam reality and fiction together, giving (except for one exception) an expletive-free and free-flowing series of fantasy vignettes with jump- cut, foul-mouthed bites of reality. For this reason more than any other it's a film that could upset Allen purists, as his attempt to capture real life sees multiple uses of the word "f***" and even the "c" word coming from Woody's lips on two occasions.Is the film misogynist? Possibly. Woody certainly appears to have anger towards women here, and while the ladies of the night so romantically depicted in the likable-but-bland Mighty Aphrodite (6) are here "whores" and "hookers", there's also more than an element of racial patronage. The adjoinder from an African American prostitute over whether she knows what a black hole is ("Yeah... that's how I make my living") is probably the most repellent line in an Allen film, bar none.Even today Woody is still capable of making watchable films, but they're rarely essential and tend towards the reactionary. Little of his later period has come close to matching the vibrancy and sheer anxiety-based energy of Deconstructing Harry. This is Woody venting his spleen for the masses, and seeming to toy with the "playing himself" questions. It may not be pleasant to watch, but it's never dull.Again, his Jewish fixations can be offensive, though the scenes with his sister and brother-in-law are amongst the funniest in this not quite laugh-a-minute vehicle. I loved the bit where he tells his sister's husband: "I think you're the opposite of paranoid. I think you go around with the insane delusion that people like you". Yeah, most of the jokes at this stage in his career are recycled, but they're given a new take by the level of unsettling acidity contained in this picture. Annie Hall this isn't.The 1990s won't be remembered as a golden age for Allen's work, a period where he was getting more laughs voicing a cartoon ant than in his own movies. Altogether he wrote and directed ten new films, as well as a grating TV movie of his 60s play/film Don't Drink The Water (4). Films like Alice (5), Manhattan Murder Mystery (6) or Shadows and Fog (5) are watchable yet forgettable, the first decade for Allen where the so-so outnumbered the good. Yet there's still some first rate work in his 90s period, with Husbands and Wives (7) treading familiar ground but in subtle new ways. Sweet and Lowdown (7), a biopic of a fictitious jazz musician, brims with invention... though his first musical, Everyone Says I Love You (q.v.) sadly does not.Perhaps most notable in the 90s is the casting of actors to play the "Woody Allen" role, as he was entering his 60s and perhaps straining even his own much-tested formula of "young girl falls for older intellectual". In this regard then Kenneth Brannagh surprisingly does a better job than John Cusack, playing a substitute in the rewarding Celebrity (7), as opposed to Cusack's turn in the jarring Bullets Over Broadway (5). Which brings us back to Deconstructing Harry, as Allen originally had no wish to star in the lead.Deconstructing Harry isn't a pleasant film to watch by any means. It's crass, foul-mouthed and even obnoxious on occasion. But the fragmented, sketchy nature of events and inventive sequences make it an easier viewing experience than an extended narrative. Not only that, but in watching something which appears to be such a personal statement, then it may not be Allen's most likable or accomplished film, but it remains one of the most intriguing.