When Woody Allen is on, he is simply brilliant. This is a statement I find myself saying every time I discover another one of his older classics. He is one of — if not — the best comedy director of all time.
Cecilia (Mia Farrow, ROSEMARY’S BABY) is a waitress trying to support her philandering husband Monk (Danny Aiello, DO THE RIGHT THING) during the Depression. She finds great joy, comfort and peace from her hard life at the movies, which she goes to almost every night. A new film called, THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO, has come to town and she just loves it, especially the pith hat wearing, young explorer Tom Baxter, played by Gil Shepherd (Jeff Daniels, THE HOURS). One day when things are at their worst for Cecilia, Tom Baxter walks out of the movie screen and declares his love for her. For once in Cecilia’s life, the magic of the movies has entered her drab existence.
Allen takes the central conceit and really goes with it, bringing out themes of freedom, escapism, love, our love affair with the movies, hardship, living in fantasy versus living in reality and life in general. But things aren’t so easy for the fictional Tom in the real world, which doesn’t have the same rules as moviedom. He only knows what he knows from the movie, and his play money doesn't go far in the real world. Things especially get hairy when Shepherd and other Hollywood types come to town to demand that Tom get back in the picture before he ruins things for them. Cecilia finally meets the actor she only knows through Tom, but how will the real person stack up?
Farrow and Daniels are wonderful together and for the latter he may have never been better. Daniels captures the 1930s era well as Tom from his naivety and plucky optimism. As Gil, he a charmer, but he's also an actor trying to make it big in Hollywood. Farrow is always great as the innocent caught up in events that are bigger than her.
The skill and depth of the screenplay are impressive. The characters aren't sophisticated, but Allen crafts sophisticated ideas around them. They're in a romance, but we're walking a brilliant satire filled with great irony. PURPLE ROSE earned Allen his fifth Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay, a category he would win a year later for HANNAH AND HER SISTERS and would be nominated in seven more times after that. Just when you think the premise has to run out of steam, Allen throws in another twist. It’s a spoof, it’s a love story, it’s a classic.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
