I don't even need
to consider his personal life to have my issues with Woody Allen. As a
filmmaker his greatest skill is also his weakness: his consistent output. He's
directed 47 feature films released in theaters, including an incredible run of
a movie every year from 1982 to 2017*. To pull off this staggering output, his
movies have recurring problems. Nearly every movie plays like a first draft.
They feel like 80% complete ideas that he lost interest in completing. Often,
endings are abrupt or outright deux ex machina. It's the equivalent of SNL
trying to turn every sketch idea into a movie then giving up when they've
exhausted the idea.
*Technically, his
streak is still going, because A Rainy Day in New York was completed in 2018 and,
thanks to some belated #MeToo backlash, Amazon didn't want to release it.
I'm a fan of Woody
Allen's movies though. Weirdly, few directors have consistently gotten amazing
performances out of lead actresses. His brand of neurotic, self-aware humor
makes me laugh. The Purple Rose of
Cairo is a movie I've been looking forward to for a while. And, it has all
of Allen's strengths and weaknesses on display.
Mia Farrow is
winsome and charming. The movie mostly happens to her, but she doesn't get lost
in it. This is such a clever idea for a movie, and I love that it doesn't get
bogged down in explaining how Jeff Daniels' character jumps out of the movie
screen. My favorite running gag is how both Tom Baxter and Gil Shepherd get
insulted when people call their role in the movie a bit part. I adore the
ending, when Cecilla returns to the movie theater to escape the mess that her
life has become. What can I say? I relate to her. I fully admit that I have a
weakness for movies about the power of the movies.
The movie is
pretty short. The kind of short that happens when a filmmaker runs out of
ideas, not the kind that happens when they make tough editing choices. The end
happens abruptly, like everyone had been vamping for time until they could end
it. It's funny, but I wonder how many more jokes he could've fit in with
another pass or two at the script. I don't think it's a coincidence that his
funniest (and my favorite) movies were all earlier in his career, when he spend
more time developing them.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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