Anything Else (2003) * * *

Directed by:  Woody Allen

Starring:  Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Woody Allen, Danny DeVito, Jimmy Fallon, KaDee Strickland, Stockard Channing, Adrian Grenier

"I never thought I'd fall in love with a smoker," Jerry (Biggs) says to Amanda (Ricci) when they first begin their drama-filled, one-sided relationship.    Jerry, a fledgling comedy writer, is the one in the relationship, while Amanda doesn't give him sex for six months and sleeps around with other men "to prove I can still enjoy sex,"   Jerry is so in love he justifies this behavior, or is he more in love with the drama?    I say more the latter, but he doesn't see it that way and likely needs a frying pan to the skull to wake him up.   

Woody Allen's Anything Else is mostly about Jerry's inability to extricate himself from bad situations and even more toxic people.     His best friend is David Dobel (Allen), a nutty schoolteacher and conspiracy theorist who dispenses world-weary advice about love and stocks up on weapons for an impending government takeover.    His shrink rarely speaks and his agent, Harvey (DeVito) is a show business joke.    Jerry would have better luck landing gigs on his own than having Harvey, who charges an absurdly high commission on the rare occasions he actually lands Jerry a job.    Jerry is a nice enough guy who doesn't need these albatrosses around his neck, but there they stay.

Dobel gives Allen an opportunity to point out the obvious to Jerry, which is that Amanda cheats on him and he should dump his agent.   In those cases, he is astute, but the whole "build up an arsenal" thing makes you wonder just how full of a deck he is playing with.   Years ago, Allen would've played Jerry, who refuses to see anything other than his romanticized version of Amanda.  Anyone with any sense would steer clear of her, but it seems she has an ability to lure men in with her supposed innate sexiness.   In a way, Dobel is the elder statesman of neurotic nebbish men who kvetch about, well, anything.  It is refreshing to see Allen in this type of role.

We also see Stockard Channing as Paula, Amanda's equally dramatic mother, whose every syllable uttered is simply a way of saying, "Yes, I'm here,"   Paula crashes at Jerry and Amanda's apartment and is yet one more person to suffocate poor Jerry.    She is the type of woman who meets a guy half her age at AA and brings him home to snort coke off of Jerry's laptop.    Jerry hardly utters any words of protest, while Amanda has him so turned around he questions whether he is too much of a stick in the mud for not doing coke.

As things tend to do in Allen comedies, things turn a corner and Jerry begins to assert himself and get rid of these losers who populate his life, but almost feels guilty doing it.  We see he is just as addicted to drama as the others, but just doesn't have the balls to admit it.     Anything Else is a mostly sunny, harmless comedy which doesn't necessarily distinguish itself in Allen's filmography, but it is still nonetheless funny and we feel good for Jerry as he takes a taxi to JFK Airport in hopes of starting a new life in LA.    It does what it intends to do.