I Lurv "Annie Hall." I Luff It (with Two "F"s).....

Rating: 9/10 (18 September 2007)

Woody Allen grew up with "Annie Hall," his at-the-time unconventional romance about two insecure but lovable New Yorkers. There's a distinct line dividing the films he had made up to that point, all of them really a 1970s equivalent to the screwball comedies of the 1930s. "Annie Hall" brought him respect and admiration from the "serious" film community (in other words, the film won Oscars), and Allen's movies were different from that point forward.
Allen uses a complex narrative structure to tell what is in essence a simple story, using flashbacks and forwards, and integrating devices that in his earlier movies had simply been gimmicks (like talking directly into the camera) seamlessly into his story. But all of that aside, the strength of "Annie Hall" is due to the wonderful characters Allen wrote, and the delightful performances of him and, especially, Diane Keaton, who plays Annie divinely. When Keaton first introduces us to Annie, she's a dingbat full of eccentric tics. But over the course of the film she evolves into a complicated, vulnerable yet tough woman who all too realistically outgrows Allen's character, Alvy Singer, a neurotic comedian who thinks every single person he comes in contact with is harboring hidden anti-Semitic tendencies. "Annie Hall" gives a perfect illustration of how two people who are right for each other in so many ways just can't make a relationship work. It's funny as hell at times, but it's predominant tone is one of nostalgic melancholy.
Grade: A