Woody in his quirky greatness.

Rating: 9/10 (5 May 2007)

Annie Hall is a story about two individuals. Both a like but have different personalities and faults. The movie starts off revealing the tumultuous gathering in which Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) and Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) first begin their courtship. The foundation of the plot is basically told through the eyes of Alvy (Allen). We get the first insight on who he is, how he carries himself, and what his main objective is throughout the film. Alvy is slovenly, curious, intelligent, and wildly analytical. The first scene introduces us to his first encounter with Annie Hall (Keaton). The beginning of their relationship is examined. Alvy is irate about the fact that Annie is arriving less than is scheduled. While he waits, he involuntarily has a conversation with 2 obvious fanatics of his work. Eventually when Annie arrives, he feels saved by her and the world is right as it should be. This could indicate that, even from the beginning, Annie and Alvy live on different times. He's on time and orderly and she is the sloppily late one from the start. But as the film progresses, we see a change occur; in Annie. Alvy appears to be the one with all the answers in the start, all and all, he is utterly clueless as to how Annie could be so different. As Alvy gives Annie some advice on how to change her life, it backfires. He grows jealous and wants to stay within the same place and never change. Alvy appears to be a flat character in this case. Where as Annie is more rounded individual.
She makes the changes to better herself and he remains constant and sullen about "what went wrong?". towards the beginning of the film. The struggle in this film is about being satisfied. Alvy is incredulous through the entire run and even goes as far as breaking the 4th wall to talk to the camera. The split screen effect gives the audience a two-sided view in how the story is told. There was even animation to justify Avly's feelings on the issues. As Annie and Alvy break up, he starts getting more and more voracious. Even to the point where he was absentmindedly asking strangers on the street for advice about what went wrong. He appeared desperate to find answers. When we reach the end, he makes one drastic change. He flew to Los Angeles to where Annie was and met with her for lunch. Annie had completely changed since we last saw her. She is more self-assured, defiant, and willing to speak her mind on any subject. Alvy doesn't seem to notice this until he asks her to move back to New York with him. She says no and leaves with dignity. Alvy, at first, is more than confused. Here he changed everything in his life to try and fix what was broken with Annie and it whiplashes him while knocking a little sense in the mix as well.
Alvy suddenly realizes what was going on all along. He was afraid of change. The message of the movie for me was sometimes when you want some things to happen, there has to be an understanding of where you are first within yourself.