"Whatever Works" *** (out of four): In this return to Manhattan - and to his old tricks - Woody Allen finds a perfect representative in Larry David.

There's a scene at the end of Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters" in which Woody's character (a hypochondriacal nebbish, natch) finds a modicum of solace in a Marx Brothers movie. Over the course of that 1986 gem, his character has had a cancer scare, attempted suicide and contemplated the meaninglessness of existence. But for that brief moment, as Groucho plays the heads of tin-plated soldiers like a xylophone, he forgets about it and laughs. He's entertained. "Whatever Works", the writer-director's most serious comedy since 1997's brilliantly black "Deconstructing Harry", feels like an attempt to craft a film out of that simple principle: whatever makes you happy, no matter how ridiculous, is fine; whatever works.

Read more on BigPictureBigSound...