A Great Comedy By (Woody Allen) About (Woody Allen) !

Rating: 8/10 (4 April 2008)

When someone secludes himself into himself, and becomes incapable of change; then he loses his love. That's the smart meaning of this comedy. And what's even smarter is how that serious meaning was made through a comedy.
(Woody Allen) structured the story on numerous situations, which he organized in the same order how they run in his lead's mind. That lead himself is considered now an icon in terms of expressing the hesitant cultured man, who's timorous when it comes to love, commitment, and stability. The final result is something deep yet funny; to the extent that it could be the funniest psychological movie ever made.
I loved that collection of daily details which formulate the lead's character eloquently, take a list: How he, as self-conceited, feels importunate necessity to prove his point of view's rightness for some guy, who hears accidentally in a line of a theater; hence, it takes a brief dream appearance of (Marshall McLuhan) to assure the lead's superiority, and shut-up any disagreement. The lead's culture gets in the way between him and having sex with a beauty, while - in fact - it's his forever fear disguised as a discussion about who killed (JFK), where he doesn't suspect the CIA, but - really - his own sexual capacities! The lead doesn't see anyone further himself; so he deemed dully that the need for love, ambition, encouragement, and alteration form his girl's side--are nothing but bad symptoms caused by her period! He was too blind to grasp the truth of himself as the actual reason of why his love failed. And lastly, he can't change himself, only his love story's end, which he writes as a play; because what can't be fixed in reality can be fixed in art. This is, as a whole, a profound exploration done very amusingly too.
So with uniquely structured script; that provided masterly drama and comedy, lively editing, and lovely acting, (Annie Hall) has the word "classic" written all over it. Many next movies, some of them by (Allen) himself, wanted to imitate it. But they were mostly less good. Maybe because they were uncreatively subjective, stupidly vague, boringly soulless. Or maybe not as witty, intensive, or hearty as (Annie Hall).
Though, the thing to bother a bit is that (Allen) with his strong consciousness and brilliant inventiveness became less attractive as time goes by, with the same problems in the same character; which produced several comedies by (Woody Allen) about (Woody Allen)'s cinematic persona. Hmmm, that's the act of someone who secludes himself into himself, and becomes incapable of change. As if (Allen) doesn't learn from his own lessons.. even they're that good!