Whatever Works will forever be known as a glorious collaboration between two legends of neurotic New York comedy: Larry David and Woody Allen. Though both men have had excellent careers, you only need to boil them down to Seinfeld and Annie Hall to see the massive cultural impact each man has had as well as their inherent similarities as comedians. When it was announced a year ago that the two living legends would be teaming up on a single film, it seemed like the world would soon be getting a new comedy classic. A film bursting with so much comedic talent that hometown New York audiences would actually be dying in the aisles from excessive laughter.

Considering the comedic pedigree that Allen and David brought with them into the film, no movie could possibly live up to the considerable expectations. Sadly, Whatever Works is not the instant classic that many fans of Allen and David hoped for. Frankly, the film isn’t even as good as Match Point or the most recent season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. But that’s not to say it’s a disaster. Far from it, this is the funniest movie that Woody Allen has made in a decade and proof that Larry David could easily carry a movie if he ever decides to take on a lead role again.

The main problem with Whatever Works is that it isn’t a true collaboration between Larry David and Woody Allen, but very much a Woody Allen movie that just happens to star Larry David. Like John Cusack, Kenneth Branagh and many other actors before him, David has been slotted into a role that would have been played by Allen himself 15-20 years ago. Granted, the character is a little more bitter than Allen’s usual persona (with the exception of the dark and underrated Deconstructing Harry) in a way that is suited to David’s distinct brand of black bile comedy, but the rhythms of his dialogue could only come from Woody. There are a few lines thrown in that feel like Larry David improvisations, but for the most part everything is clearly scripted.

That’s a problem that has been arising in most Woody Allen movies from the last decade or so. In the 70s and 80s when Allen’s self esteem and Hollywood status were a little lower he clearly encouraged improv and last minute rewrites on the set constantly. Now that he’s a legend, actors treat his dialogue like Shakespeare and refuse to change a single word. That’s all well and good, but it means that all the conversations take place in a Woody Allen universe rather than the real world and you can always picture the lines coming out of Woody’s own mouth more naturally than any other actor. This combined with the fact that he’s virtually given up on stylized cinematography and editing in favor of shooting every scene in endless wide shots gives the movie a very stagy feel. There’s very little sense of reality in Whatever Works. The whole movie takes place in Woodyville.