Deconstructing Harry
Fine Line Features | Release Date: December 12, 1997 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
4
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Woody Allen's strongest and most mordantly funny movie in years, even if it is also his bleakest. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Deconstructing Harry is Woody Allen's naughty-boy confessional movie, a disquietingly candid and funny portrait of a pathological narcissist. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
This poisonous, brazenly autobiographical comedy shows off the best of Mr. Allen's misanthropic humor. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A bravura act of self-revelation, its vivid portrait of one man's fears, fantasies and neuroses uses a mixture of reality, imagination and comedy to create one of the writer-director's most involving films. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This is in many ways his most revealing film, his most painful, and if it also contains more than his usual quotient of big laughs, what was it the man said? "We laugh, that we may not cry." Read full review
80
Film ThreatRon Wells
I've never been a fan, but in the space of a couple hours the Woodster gives both an explanation AND the finger to ALL of his critics. This is mean-spirited fun, just the way we like it! Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Woody Allen is back in sharp comic form, though it's likely that his abrasive black comedy Deconstructing Harry will alienate as many people as it tickles. Read full review
80
VarietyDavid Stratton
A tremendous, stellar cast is mostly confined to minor roles, but all shine under Allen's assured direction. Read full review
80
Washington PostRita Kempley
A provocative, but extremely profane work, it is surely Allen's bawdiest since "Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex." Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Then along comes a movie like Deconstructing Harry, which marks the writer/director/actor's return to top form, once again using the stuff of his life to create the stuff of his fiction. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It's a movie of moments, some of which are side-splittingly funny. Arguably, this is the most uproarious comedy that Allen has ever done. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
The film is smutty-mouthed and jumpy and free-associative, and Allen does everything but hurl his feces at the audience. The result is more rambunctious--and more fun--than any movie he has made in years. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A fever dream about an aging, grasping, neurotic artist who brings his disastrous personal life, thinly veiled, into his work and ends up as a grotesque caricature of himself, alienating everyone who ever loved him. Read full review
60
EmpireAngie Errigo
Unnervingly, it is both hilariously funny and quite disturbing, with Allen's neuroses and fixations manifested in some shocking ugliness and intimately personal revelations we'd rather not have seen confirmed. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Woody Allen wrote and directed this inventive comedy, which has some good laughs but a very nasty edge. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Although the performances by the star-studded cast are generally excellent, only Billy Crystal really manages to transcend the dour misery of Allen's script: His witty turn as a dapper Satan is a blessed relief from the neurotic gloom. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
Increasingly, reviewing the latest Woody Allen movie has taken on the feel of a dreaded ritual, an annual excursion into careless filmmaking, desperate shtick, and vainglorious misanthropy disguised as cuddly neurosis. Read full review
20
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Deconstructing Harry is a mess: a shambling, narcissistic, sexist romp that is, worst of all, almost entirely devoid of laughs. Read full review
10
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
This runs a close second to September as his worst feature to date--marginally more bearable only because it's a comedy and a couple of gags are reasonably funny. Read full review
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