An open letter to Woody Allen

You have taught me how to cope when life disappoints. You’re regularly suffering from existential despair in your films but something always snaps you back: a Marx Brothers film, a Bobby Short song, the presence of a newspaper-reading Charlotte Rampling. And when you felt you needed to itemize the reasons to go on living, you came up with that amazing list: Cezanne’s apples and pears, Louie Armstrong’s “Potato Head Blues,” Willie Mays, Swedish movies. For me, it’s the Spoonbridge and Cherry at the Walker Art Center, Elvis Costello’s “New Lace Sleeves,” Kevin Garnett and your films.

You seem to be back on track. I enjoyed “Melinda and Melinda,” and the buzz on “Match Point” is ecstatic. From what I’ve read it’s your return to grappling with weighty subject matter. Thank goodness. I need your take on life’s great imponderables again — love, death, the chicken at Tresky’s. I need more answers. I’ll be there Dec. 28 when “Match Point” premieres in Minneapolis. I have a lot of years invested in following your lead and I don’t plan on stopping now. I need the eggs.

If “Match Point” wins the Oscar for best film, Adam Wahlberg plans to officially change his name to Allen Konigsberg. He is the executive editor of Minnesota Law & Politics (“Only Our Name Is Boring”). He can be reached at .

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