Anything Else

Woody Allen takes another breezy promenade through the romantic adventures of urban New Yorkers, this time with Jason Biggs (of the American Pie films) in the role Allen himself would have played 30 years ago: the stammering, good-hearted putz who can’t keep his love life straight. Biggs plays a fledgling comedy writer whose girlfriend (Christina Ricci) won’t have sex with him, even as her mother (Stockard Channing) moves into their cramped apartment to polish her nightclub act (Allen is on screen, too, as the hero’s older, only slightly less-neurotic mentor). Lightweight and pleasant, the film is a blizzard of airy persiflage, expertly purveyed by the usual array of fine actors eager to bite into Allen’s dialogue. A highlight is the public breakdown of the hero’s jilted agent (Danny DeVito).