Unlikely romance focus of ‘Whatever Works’

When: Opening Friday at the Suncoast

Cast: Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson

Director: Woody Allen

The story: A chance meeting leads to an unlikely romance between a misanthropic New York physicist and a Mississippi runaway — whose departure soon brings her mother to the Big Apple.

The buzz: Allen’s 40th (!) big-screen directing credit brings him back to his home turf, New York, for the first time since 2004’s “Melinda and Melinda.” But “Whatever Works” takes Allen back even further. He reportedly wrote it back in the ’70s for Zero Mostel (who created two indelible roles: “Fiddler on the Roof’s” Tevye and “The Producers’ ” Max Bialystock), who died in 1977 — the same year Allen released his Oscar-winning classic “Annie Hall.”