Released 1997
Stars Woody Allen, Judy Davis, Elizabeth Shue, Kirstie Alley, Billy Crystal, Richard Benjamin, Demi Moore, Julie Louis-Dreyfus, Stanley Tucci, Robin Williams
Directed by Woody Allen

Once a year, like clockwork, Woody Allen writes, directs and usually stars in exactly the film he feels like making. 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."

The film stars Allen as Harry Block, a novelist whose material vaguely suggests Philip Roth. Both names represent aspects of the character, who is blocked, and who is seen by many (and sometimes by himself) as Satan. Harry is a user and borrower: He uses people, and then borrows the story of how he used them, and uses that, too. The movie cuts between real time and fictionalized episodes from his books, in which Harry's clones and surrogates indulge their appetites when and as they can. Harry is a philandering cheater who has been through three wives and six therapists (the Kirstie Alley character is in both categories).

The film has rich comic bits; the most original involves Robin Williams as an actor who is concerned that he's losing his focus--and is (he's out of focus in every scene). There's a visit to hell to see the devil (Billy Crystal, who also plays the friend who has stolen Harry's mistress). But no single Woody Allen film ever sums up everything, or could, and what is fascinating is to watch him, year after year, making the most personal of films, and hiding himself in plain view.

Summary by Roger Ebert