Anything Else
| Anything Else | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Woody Allen |
| Written by | Woody Allen |
| Produced by | Letty Aronson Jerry Weintraub |
| Starring | Jason Biggs Christina Ricci Woody Allen Stockard Channing Danny DeVito Jimmy Fallon KaDee Strickland |
| Cinematography | Darius Khondji |
| Edited by | Alisa Lepselter |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | DreamWorks (USA) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (UK DVD) |
Release date | August 27, 2003 |
Running time | 108 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | ~ US$18,000,00 |
| Box office | $13,585,075 (worldwide) |
Anything Else is a 2003 romantic comedy film. The film was written and directed by Woody Allen, produced by his sister Letty Aronson, and stars Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Woody Allen, Stockard Channing, Danny DeVito, Jimmy Fallon and KaDee Strickland.
Anything Else was the opening-night selection at the 60th annual Venice International Film Festival.
Plot
Jerry Falk (Biggs) is an aspiring writer living in New York City who falls in love at first sight with Amanda (Ricci) and begins having an affair and eventually tells his girlfriend about it so that she will dump him because Falk cannot end relationships. Seeking advice, Jerry turns to an aging struggling artist (Allen) who acts as his oracle — and that includes trying to help sort out Jerry’s romantic life.
Casting
- Jason Biggs as Jerry Falk
- Christina Ricci as Amanda Chase
- Woody Allen as David Dobel
- Stockard Channing as Paula Chase
- Danny DeVito as Harvey Wexler
- Jimmy Fallon as Bob
- KaDee Strickland as Brooke
- Erica Leerhsen as Connie
- Adrian Grenier as Ray Polito
- David Conrad as Dr. Phil Reed
Critical reception
The film received generally mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film received 40 percent positive reviews, based on 129 reviews.[1] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 43 out of 100, based on 37 reviews.[2] Leonard Maltin, in his movie and video guide, gave the film a “BOMB” rating (the only Allen-directed film he has ever rated BOMB), and called it “Allen’s all-time worst”. However, the reception was not entirely negative; in August 2009, it was cited by Quentin Tarantino as one of his favorite 20 films since 1992.
Marketing
Dreamworks launched a $10 million marketing campaign for the movie that was centered on the appeal of Biggs and Ricci to attract a teenage audience to the film. Trailers, TV ads and posters for the film seemed to hide the fact that the film was written and directed by Allen, perhaps due to his last few films being underperformers at the box office. Roger Ebert noted in his review of the film that “it’s as if they have the treasure of a Woody Allen movie and they’re trying to package it for the American Pie crowd.”[3] The film was a flop stateside, opening at #12 its opening weekend and grossing only $3.2 million. As has become common with Allen’s films, it performed better overseas, grossing $10.3 million, but could not make back its $18 million shooting budget or the $10 million Dreamworks spent marketing the film.
Filming
Anything Else is only the second Allen film to be shot in anamorphic format, the first being Manhattan. It also has the honor of being the first film released with all prints having cyan optical soundtracks (the new standard for analog sound on film prints).
When he cast him and during most of the shoot, Allen was under the impression that Biggs was Jewish. Allen was surprised to discover that he is in fact Catholic.
References
- ^ "Anything Else - Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
- ^ "Anything Else (2003): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
- ^ Ebert, Roger. "Anything Else review". Chicago Sun-Times.
External links
- Anything Else at IMDb
- Anything Else at AllMovie
- Anything Else at Rotten Tomatoes
- Anything Else at Metacritic
- Anything Else at Box Office Mojo
