Review of Annie Hall

Annie Hall

This is my kind of romantic comedy. Back in the days when smart people could be smart in films, complete with bags upon bags of neurosis and all. There probably is no better metaphor for a Woody Allen romance than one person being more New York and the other being more Los Angeles. One has a history of cosmopolitan rudeness and the other is known for being sunny and full of phonies who think they’re deep. Annie is too deep for the Hollywood literati, but she’s also not rude and paranoid enough for the Manhattan streets. She needs the sunshine and the health food restaurants, plus the therapy sessions, to properly break through her “issues.” Alvy Singer, conversely, is a New Yawker through and through. As Annie tells him, he’s a “real Jew.” Or, well, the Manhattan stereotyped brand. But Allen is too smart to leave either character as a stereotype, and while they start out as types, by the end of the film they’ve become fully realized human beings.

Diane Keaton deservedly won an Oscar for the titular role. How many real-life women do you know like Annie? Several most likely. And that’s what is so great about her. She feels like a real person that you could meet. She’s flighty yet neurotic, artistic but lacking in serious ambition, needy yet strangely independent. She might be the greatest of all of Allen’s women’s roles. And he’s written some great ones.

And, yes, the comedy still holds up. The flashback to his elementary school class? Hilarious. The close-up of the girl who says she’s really into leather? It sends me into hysterics every time. My favorite might be the animated Evil Queen sequence where Alvy explains that as a child he always loved the Queen more than Snow White. The best part is hearing Keaton’s voice squeal out “I don’t have a period! I’m a cartoon character!” Ah, classic Woody. Still fresh and one of the funniest movies ever, and, yes, it did deserve to win the Best Picture Oscar over Star Wars.

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Added by JxSxPx 1 year ago on 30 June 2008 04:21