Watch Deconstructing Harry For Free

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

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!

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.

Harry Block is a successful writer who gets inspiration from people he knows.Everybody doesn't like that.And he has his flaws, like pills and whores.Now his old university is honoring him.Harry wants to take his son Hilly to the ceremony, but his ex-wife Joan says no.But Harry takes him there anyway, as he does take a prostitute named Cookie and a friend called Richard.What a day to remember that will be! Deconstructing Harry is a Woody Allen film from 1997.Woody Allen gives a really great performance in this movie.Luckily he cast himself.No complaints about the rest of the cast either.Kirstie Alley plays the part of Joan, Harry's ex-wife.Billy Crystal, who gets to do next year's Oscars again, plays Larry/The Devil.Lucy Davis is Lucy.Bob Balaban plays Richard.Elisabeth Shue plays Fay.Paul Giamatti is Prof. Abbott.Philip Bosco is Prof. Clark.Mariel Hemingway, who was also in Allen's Manhattan, plays Beth Kramer.Hazelle Goodman is Cookie.Amy Irving is Jane.Eric Lloyd plays Hilly.Now 90-year old Gene Saks plays Harry's Father.Tony Sirico is Policeman at Jail.Then there are some characters that are of Harry's creation.Richard Benjamin plays Ken.Julia Louis-Dreyfus is Leslie.Tobey Maguire plays Harvey Stern.Jennifer Garner is Woman in Elevator.Stanley Tucci is Paul Epstein.Demi Moore plays Helen.Robin Williams is Mel.Julie Kavner is Grace.This is a very fine Woody Allen movie of the 90's.It's often funny.You find yourself most amused, when they're driving with the hooker and doing some car singing.Also out of focus Robin Williams is hilarious.I get seasick just by looking at him.

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.