For the fourth time in as many festivals, Bradford has premiered a Woody Allen comedy. By my reckoning, that's involved hearing the line "What are you, crazy?" about 300 times.

This latest of his works boasts an unusually large and starry cast: Demi Moore, Robin Williams and Billy Crystal are among the alphabetically-ordered principals.

Nevertheless, this isn't one of Woody's masterworks. It's certainly funny - but it does stray well and truly into the realms of self-indulgence.

The eponymous Harry (Woody) is a writer of stories which are actually thinly disguised accounts of his own life. Harry is a serial adulterer, having worked his way through three marriages, six psychiatrists and heaven knows how many mistresses. He counts his wife's sister among his more notable conquests.

We see snatches of his stories as vignettes which punctuate the main narrative, and some are genuinely inspired. Perhaps the funniest has Robin Williams as an actor who's permanently out of focus.

It's in its central story, however, that Deconstructing Harry weakens.

This thread concerns Harry making a trip back to his old college to receive an honour. Along for the ride are his nine year-old son (kidnapped because his mother has refused Harry access), a hypochondriac friend, and a hooker with whom he spent the previous evening.

Much soul searching takes place en route, but this serves mainly to expose the fact that Harry is not as interesting a character as those around him.

His angst is driven almost entirely by the fact that the student with whom he's been living (Elisabeth Shue, left) has left him for Billy Crystal, to whom he introduced her.

Arguably the funniest performance is that of Kirstie Alley as Harry's neurotic ex-wife. Woody's fans will also enjoy seeing many of his regular rep company going through their paces.

The film goes on general release in the spring.

David Behrens

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