A masterpiece of sentimental urban comedy

Rating: 9/10 (23 April 2003)

A New York comedian and a Midwestern girl have a brief Summer affair.
Living proof that the best films are about nothing, this won the Oscar awards for picture (the only time this has been given to a comedy), script and direction. Maybe modesty prevented the Academy from giving Allen the award for best actor too - although he was nominated. Co-star Diane Keaton won the Best Actress award largely on the strength of the material.
The world-class wisecracks of Allen make the thing worthwhile by themselves ("don't knock masturbation it is sex with someone I love") and the fact that Allen (the director) feels he can do anything from subtitles (giving his secret thoughts) to going back in time to revisit his own childhood. He is like a stage magician, we sit not knowing what tricks he is going to pull next, applauding because his tricks are not only a surprise, but often fantastic too.
To complicate the matters even more, Allen and Keaton once had a brief affair (which ended before filming started) and we are left wondering if some of the scenes are not autobiographical. It all seems to make the soup that bit thicker and spicier.
Like Dickens, Lennon and Shakespeare, Allen is an author visited by genius in being able to make the everyday and mundane in to something epic. I can't explain it (certainly not in a paragraph or two), but I am glad it is there. There is 93 minutes of film in Annie Hall, but there isn't one moment of boredom or scene that falls flat.

When you pair this with Manhattan (a companion piece to this) you have Woody Allen at the peak of his film making powers, producing material that people will be enjoying a hundred years from now. The real tragedy is that so few films are this good and the present day Allen has passed his peak; but I live in hope that I see another comedy that delivers as many down-to-earth laughs and insights in my lifetime.