Annie Hall or Woody Allen’s Pygmalion – a review
So, I watched Annie Hall this weekend. It was probably Friday night. It seems to me that was the last time I was really cognizant of anything going on that I could remember what I watched or did and actually be able to offer an opinion.
Annie Hall is one of Woody Allen’s movies. Meaning, he wrote it, he directed it, and he starred in it. So, the movie pretty much smacks of Woody Allen, Woody Allen, and Woody Allen. I wonder if he didn’t decide to follow that tact because he is not, and has never been, an attractive enough of an individual to get directors and casting directors to take him seriously enough that he could make a career out of acting. Granted, he can direct, and I’ve read recently that a director is a lot like a general, having to direct everything that is going on and not just what is happening in front of the camera… gah, I don’t really know where to go with that. I am actually hot/cold with a lot of Woody Allen’s movies. Seems like I really liked Curse of the Jade Scorpion but it was more the style and content that he filmed it in and not because he wrote and directed it. It also seems that I’ve read repeated articles over the years about him being able to get funding for pretty much any movie project because his name is billable enough that the studios know they will almost always make money off of the project.
Anyway, Annie Hall stars Woody Allen and Diane Keaton. Wow! Let me say that again: Wow! I wonder why it took me so long to watch this movie. It’s not some groundbreaking piece of cinematic art or moviemaking, it’s really not that interesting of a story. Woody Allen plays Alvy Singer. It starts with him lamenting the breakup he’s gone through with Diane Keaton’s Annie Hall. And then the movie proceeds to walk the viewer through the relationship and how Alvy Singer has been married to two women before he’d met Annie and that both women were, in their own rights, genius’s.
So he meets Annie. She isn’t the smartest pickle in the barrel. And there is instant attraction. Amazingly enough, and to Diane Keaton’s credit, she plays that off pretty well. She also plays the ditz pretty well. Alvy liked the body, but he doesn’t like the mind. Alvy is obsessed with death and dying and therapy or analysis or whatever they called it in the 70’s and Annie is just happy being Annie. Here starts the change in personality. Alvy isn’t happy with Annie as she is. He is not happy with just being with someone who likes him and likes to be with him, given his penchant for depression and attitude, and so he insists that she take adult education courses – until she starts to meet other men; he insists that she go to therapy – until therapy causes her to realize that she’s not happy with Alvy; and he insists that she keep singing – until she starts to become successful for singing. In short, Alvy has an image of what his perfect partner might be, and that partner might be Annie if she were… smarter, more talented, and in tune with herself. The problem is, then, that when she becomes smarter, starts to read, and realizes what makes her happy and successful, the eventual equation doesn’t include Alvy.
Annie Hall is a good movie to watch about getting what you want and then realizing that what you thought you wanted, you didn’t. It works on so many levels that it’s fun to watch and experience. I really enjoyed the movie and found that Diana Keaton, who is attractive now, was actually a really attractive woman back when. She’s talented now, but she was talented then. The movie is good and worth watching, but if you have any issues with Woody Allen or his films, you are probably better off watching something else because this movie, in all it’s… uhm, whatever, is all about Woody Allen. Even though it is titled after Annie, the movie is about Woody Allen and really screams his public persona all the way throughout. You can almost see him divorcing his wife and marrying his adopted daughter because, well, that’s Alvy for you; happy until he’s got what he wants and then he moves on. So, watch it at your own risk because, you know, Woody Allen.