Neurotic New Yawkers I couldn't relate to...but the point is taken and appreciated............

Rating: 8/10 (23 July 1999)

Annie Hall thrives on Allen's comic bantering and developing characters as richly as their own narrowness and shortcomings would allow (the only non-cardboard characters are really Annie and Alvie themselves...but Marshall McLuhan has a cameo!) I particularly enjoyed the way the characters' childhood trauma, relationship sore-spots, and personal psyche are played out, while they are on-screen watching themselves and talking to us about themselves. Very theatre-like. One favorite moment is the montage sequence of Alvie's frustration at his stalling romance with Annie, reinforced by shots of a young Alvie going bananas at the bumper cars. Freud would probably have loved breaking apart Annie Hall ;-)
The film tells Alvie and Annie's relationship in multiple flashbacks and vignette-episodes. This drives home the point of their personalities. It's also VERY effective in giving you a migraine from its neurotic structure and characters. This being Woody Allen, I expected a lot of laughs and was not disappointed. The ending is quite bittersweet and the best way, not over-sentimental or romanticized, to conclude a humorous look at relationships.