Allen's Best Work

Rating: 9/10 (10 October 2000)

In Allen's Annie Hall, he reveals his full potential as a filmmaker. This is Allen's true breakthrough film. Although still very humorous, Allen deals with issues of human interaction and relationships in Annie Hall that were not explored in his earlier works. This has lead to creating a delightfully well-conceived and intelligent look at the lives of two people.	Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) is a young, Midwestern woman who meets Alvy Singer (Woody Allen), a neurotic Jewish standup comic. They are almost instantly smitten, and they fall in love. What follows is a very non-linear film about their relationship and feelings for each other.

If one attempted to deconstruct Annie Hall's plot structure it would cause the film to not make sense. It jumps hyperactively around in time and location and allows its narrator (Alvy Singer) to indulge in anecdotes that can sometimes feel detrimental to the driving plot point of the film: his relationship with Annie. However, these comical asides all seem to link together as the film progresses and give us a clearer picture of Allen's overall statements on relationships.	The fact that Woody Allen is able to maintain the narrative complexity of Annie Hall while keeping the audience perfectly oriented is only one of the things about Annie Hall that make it so impressive. Another aspect of it that is very satisfying and worth noting is the vivid cinematography by Gordon Willis. He captures the sophistication of New York city by using a lighting concept similar to the one he used in The Godfather. In fact, most of the visual elements of the film are very strong, including the art direction by Mel Bourne and clothing designed by fashion designer Ralph Lauren. All of these elements converge to create a new and interesting New York look, that is at once authentic and slightly off kilter enough for this quirky comedy.	Of course, art direction and costume design wouldn't make this film worth watching if the performances in Annie Hall were poor. Luckily enough for us, they're the opposite. The interplay between Keaton and Allen crackles on the screen. Their charisma is a joy to watch. Although Woody Allen is just playing another version of his "New Yorker neurotic Jew" character that we have seen in other films, Diane Keaton really sinks her acting chops into the title role. Her Annie goes through an evident intellectual transformation that Keaton pulls off very convincingly. Allen is always funny as his neurotic persona and this is no exception.
The rest of the acting in the film is convincing and enjoyable. Allen has worked with his casting director Juliet Taylor in order to find incredibly entertaining and talented people for even the most minute of roles. Some standout supporting characters include Carol Kane as Alison, one of Alvy's ex-girlfriends, and Christopher Walken in a brilliant comedic turn as Annie's brother Duane Hall. His five minutes in the film is worth the price of admission alone.
I couldn't really find anything wrong with Annie Hall. All of its various facets converge to create a very entertaining film. I always find Woody Allen's bickering "Little Schlemiel" anti-hero of a persona to be fascinating. Finally, in this film he gives this little guy something really interesting to do. We really get to enter Singer's neuroses in a way that is complexly satisfying and may remind us of ourselves and how we relate to others. The audience is also never allowed to forget how infused these characters' lives are with sadness and comedy. There are some bitterly funny scenes in Annie Hall that are startlingly reminiscent of our modern day reality. Most of the audience can't help but identify. For a thought provoking and highly entertaining video rental Annie Hall can't be beat. It's the most intelligent movie comedy of it's decade.