2003, R, 108 minutes

Over the past few years, it has been getting harder and harder to watch a Woody Allen film. Not that everything he has produced in the last five years has been bad; Sweet and Lowdown was a critical favorite and Small Time Crooks was a pleasant experience, but there was also Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Hollywood Ending, which were disasters in almost every sense of the word. His newest feature, Anything Else, is nowhere near the disappointments that Woody fans have had to endure for nearly the last decade, but alas, it is still a disappointment.

Jason Biggs of American Pie fame plays Jerry Falk, a nebbish young writer who is slightly neurotic, slightly rigid, and very much like a young Woody Allen. He writes jokes for various stand-up comics in New York, but his true goal in life is to complete his novel. During one of his job interviews, he meets up with David Dobel, played by Woody Allen, and they strike up a friendship. Falk pours his heart and soul out to Dobel, telling him about everything from his beautiful girlfriend (Christina Ricci) to his views on life, and Dobel in return tries in his own way to help him work out his problems.

When Biggs and Allen are on screen together, the results are usually pretty funny. The dialogue, for the most part, is classic Woody, and it flows quite nicely. It’s only when Biggs has to carry the movie by himself that Anything Else becomes shaky. He simply doesn’t have the timing, or the energy that is required of him in this film. He can mimic the mannerisms of Allen, but every line he speaks is delivered with an almost monotone inflection, and he certainly can’t keep up with the tempo of the dialogue between himself and the other actors. He seems out of his league in just about every scene that he’s in. You know things are going bad when you watch him perform and the only thing you can do is think of other actors that should have replaced him.

Everyone else in the film comes out looking pretty good. Christina Ricci does an admirable job has Falk’s girlfriend, Amanda, who is prone to pill popping and sleeping with everyone but Falk. Considering that Ricci has never really had to stretch her acting chops too far (with the exception of her excellent performance in The Opposite of Sex), she really shines in this role. Stockard Channing is a bright spot as Amanda’s crackpot mother, and Danny Devito steals every scene he is in, playing Falk’s business manager who relates everything in his life, no matter how big or small, to the quality of a good suit.

Overall Anything Else won’t be viewed as Woody Allen’s worst film (take your pick between some of his other duds), but it is sad to see another film -- from a director who is considered by his fans to be a God among men when it comes to moviemaking -- turn in another film that can’t seem to work up the energy to rise out of it’s own mediocrity.