Annie Hall DVD > Reviews > Perhaps the best Woody Allen film of all time

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Woody Allen dialogue at its finest with universally brilliant performances
Disadvantages:	If you don't like any other Woody Allen movie you won't like this one

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Woody Allen has created the prefect romantic comedy for those who are not often fans of romantic comedies. Like films such as Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy and Mike Nichols' Closer, Annie Hall points out that love is not always a many-splendoured thing. Love can hurt, love can make us confused and love can not always lead to the obvious conclusions. This isn't the standard boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back again. This is more like boy loses girl and painstakingly analyses his relationship from various points intercutting moments of his life before meeting girl and comes to realise that he may have lost the woman of his dreams.

It is, of course, a Woody Allen film and that means that some people - such as my mum - are going to hate it regardless, but I believe that if you watched this film with an open mind there's a great chance you'll end up being pleasantly surprised. Of course the Allen witticisms are in there as usual - "I heard dissent and commentary had merged to form dissentery' - and they have rarely been bettered, but this was the beginning of Allen maturing as a film maker. The story goes backwards and forwards in time, employs subtitles, split-screen, animation and other cinematic innovations that would be considered by some to be gimmicky, but never seem contrived or forced in this film.

So, if you've seen a Woody Allen film before and enjoyed it, buy this straight away; if you've never seen a Woody Allen film before, make this your first; if you've seen a Woody Allen film before and didn't like it, it might be worth giving this one a shot and finally; if you saw a Woody Allen film and loathed it with every inch of your being then don't worry yourself with buying this one.

It must be noted, though, that the purity of vision Woody Allen employs with his films (he has never watched Annie Hall or any of his other films since he finished them) has resulted in this being a bare-bones DVD release, so it may be an idea to rent the film first, as I did, and there's a good chance you'll then decide it has to be a part of your permanent collection.