annie hall review

Rating: Null/10 (13 May 2003)

Annie Hall

`Annie Hall' is a comedy about relationships from the point of view of the main character portrayed by Woody Allen. Directed by and starring Woody Allen, `Annie Hall' addresses the issue of relationships and religion from a realistic rather than a romantic viewpoint. Throughout the movie the director, Annie Hall uses many flashbacks and multiple comedy techniques which work together to form an extremely funny movie. Woody Allen plays a paranoid Jewish liberal in a quest to find a woman with whom he can settle down with. When Woody Allen becomes involves with the character Annie Hall played by Diane Keaton the seem to be complete opposites but end up falling for each other even though their relationship is doomed from the beginning. Therefore throughout the entire movie `Annie Hall' becomes a slapstick comedy about how they met each other, their lives before, and their past relationship. The filmmaker's decision to use flashbacks in order to portray Annie Hall and Woody Allen's lives before they were together and their past relationship provides a way for the audience to grasp the characters personalities and some background information. The use of flashbacks also becomes important in portraying Woody Allen's family and their religious culture. Woody Allen illustrates the Jewish religion in a way that is clever and witty regardless of the audiences demographic. The brief animation based on the tale of `Snow White' during a flashback, shows Woody Allen's insecurities with women and how he tends to believe that they are all shallow. Another issue that Woody Allen takes on in the movie, `Annie Hall' is that of the working class and his beliefs that all workers lower on the social stratosphere shows how he believes himself as a celebrity and above all of this friends and love interests, therefore placing them as selfish and shallow.. A particular example of this is when Woody Allen and Annie Hall are at one of their friend's houses and they are asked to do cocaine. Everyone else engages until Woody Allen sneezes and it all blows away. The film does seem to take a turn at the end though when it seems that the message is that everyone is all selfish and shallow at one point regardless of their social status. Therefore, the film `Annie Hall' proves to be a success in developing a comedy that appeals to everyone who has ever been in a relationship, a just a slight bit neurotic.