Great Art Comedy

Rating: 9/10 (15 January 2005)

ANNIE HALL is art comedy. I took some thought into terming it; "comedy art" suggests that its gags are artistic while my belief is that this is "art comedy", art that happens to make you chuckle. I consider MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL and AIRPLANE! to be "comedy art". I consider ANNIE HALL "art comedy".
This is essentially a classic romance told in humorous form. Alvy Singer, played by Woody Allen, is a neurotic, Jewish, New York, stand-up comedian who refuses to change. Annie Hall, played by Diane Keaton, is a capricious, Midwest raised, New York living, fashion setting woman who sings in a nightclub. It's the story of their love, a love which is not perfect but needed. There's happiness, sadness, symbolism, literary allusions, fourth-wall demolition, and even animation. There are struggles between fantasy and reality. There are bittersweet moments of romantic futility. There are two spiders the size of Buicks. It's wistful, it's psychological, and it's even funny.
If you only saw the earlier Woody Allen films, such as BANANAS or SLEEPER, before this movie, as I did, you may be surprised by the difference between this and those. Those films were more farcical, slapstick, and contained more music. ANNIE HALL does not have those sequences where a silent slapstick routine is set to sprightly music. In fact, not even the opening and closing titles have any music of any sort. There's a quick clip of music after a car ride, there's the music heard while in the movie theatre, and Diane Keaton sings twice (the second song is repeated before the end credits). But it's probably just as well. A slapstick routine would seem out of place in this touching, distinctly human story of imperfect but indispensable love.