Love, quite contrary

Rating: 7/10 (12 March 2013)

The comedian Alvy 'Max' Singer (Woody Allen), opening his monologue, is trying to understand why his relationship with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) ended a year ago. Growing up in New York, he had vexed his mother on the emptiness of existence while also being preoccupied by his own sexual curiosity.
It would later show Alvy as a grown up, now with Annie but getting into an argument as they went to queue up in a movie theatre watching "The Sorrow and the Pity". There would be someone in the queue just behind them who would especially annoy Alvy on interpreting loudly on the works of Marshall McLuhan. It would be not long the real man himself steps in to correct what the man in the queue behind Alvy had been talking loudly about.
Later that night, Annie had no interest in having sex with Alvy. Instead, the two would discuss about Alvy's past two relationships. The first was Alvy's first wife Allison Portchnik (Carol Kane), the second was an intellectual. It is different when it comes to his relationship with Annie, along with Alvy mocking the men Annie had once being involved with before it would show how Alvy and Annie first came to know each other. Things started to get tense when both were beginning to like each other, in terms of their view of the world and their respective family backgrounds which Alvy found out when he met Annie's family.
While Alvy did try to see other people after breaking off with Annie for a period of time, he still finds himself coming back to her, but after Annie was calling him for help on the phone. But separate meetings with their respective therapists showed that there is still a divide between them.
If one is able to follow the story well, one is able to understand the story Woody Allen's character Alvy is trying to tell about especially his relationship with Diane Keaton's character Annie, and the two's views on love and relationships in the film itself. The interchangeable scenes as Alvy is trying to explain his own life and past relationships, inserting with the present-day version of himself when revisiting something from his past, may seem confusing at times to some in terms of trying to catch what he is trying to put across.
But the quirkiness of Allen's character speaking directly to the camera at times, seemingly trying to emphasis or tell the viewing audience something is definitely something refreshing. And the randomness of Keaton's character randomly breaking off into 'La-dee-da, la-dee-da' when she has nothing else to say brings out the spontaneity.