Extra! Character walks off screen for love struck waitress!, 1 Dec 2003

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews

Some critics dismissed this Woody Allen film as a flip on Buster Keaton's silent classic "Sherlock Jr.," a surreal fantasy about a film projectionist and amateur detective who climbs into a movie. But so what if the idea is not new? The chief charm here is what Allen does with the idea. The romantic triangle between Cecilia, Tom and Gil is pleasant enough, but for me what is hysterical is what is going on back at the theater with the characters in the movie who are waiting to find out what happens. Henry (Edward Herrmann) is worried they will turn off the projector and make everything dark, while Jason (John Wood) insists the movie is really about him so they do not need Tom to come back. Rita (Deborah Rush) points out she is rich and does not have to put up with this nonsense while the maid, Delilah (Annie Joe Edwards) objects to people being in the wrong reel. Of course the time comes for Cecilia to go through the looking glass to join Larry (Van Johnson) and the Countess (Zoe Caldwell) at the swank nightclub, where Kitty Haynes (Karen Akers) is quite upset to find Tom with another woman. The idea that movies are truly "screen plays" that the actors play out several times a day is carried off marvelously. Meanwhile, the audiences are staying at the theater to see what happens next. The non-movie is as interesting as the real thing.

Mia Farrow actually has the Woody Allen part in this Woody Allen movie in which Woody Allen does not appear. The accent is a bit much (not as grating as her comic turn in "Radio Days"), but Cecilia is clearly a sweet soul and there is something about the way the light of the movies plays with her eyes that captures her happiness at finding the escape. Of course, reality, not to mention the Hollywood studio system, are out for money and not happiness, so that there cannot be a storybook ending. "The Purple Rose of Cairo" is more than a one-joke film, although certainly it is more streamlined that your average Allen film. Besides, despite the enticing impulse to do so, I do not see this as an indictment of Hollywood or the para-social interaction of real audiences with fictional characters. This is a charming little fantasy with enough of an element of reality to keep the dream from staying alive.

 Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)

One of five bona-fide Woody Allen masterworks..., 1 Feb 2006

By	Jonathan James Romley (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

The script is really one of Allen's best, combining a great and imaginative story with intelligent characters and believable scenarios... while the whole thing is made just that little more enchanting through the evocative recreation of depression era New Jersey, and the mannered, though no less impressive directorial flourishes from Allen. The cast is perfect too, managing to bring Allen's world to life, as well as presenting us with a believable emotional centre on which the director can navigate the more elaborate elements of the plot. Farrow has never been better as the put-upon dreamer swept up in her love of cinema, and, in particular, her dashing "leading man in the making" Gil Shepherd. As a result, the entire film, from almost the first frame to the last, can be seen as a treatise on the idea of escape and escapism, and how these ideas correlate with Farrow's character Cecilia, who, whilst attempting to escape from her life of drudgery, work and her cheating husband, becomes infatuated with Shepherd's latest film (also called The Purple Rose of Cairo) and his character Tom Baxter, a fearless adventurer cast adrift in the complicated world of New York's glittering social milieu.

Allen's script, like his later film Crimes and Misdemeanours, is full of self-reference and contains many different layers that compliment the more obvious elements of the script perfectly. For example, Allen plays with the idea of mirroring; having a character within the film (within the film) brought out of their natural habitat, and into a world that is completely alien. This is again referenced later when the same character (Tom Baxter) is brought out of that environment for a second time and dragged into the real world. Later, Cecilia is taken back into the film (within the film) on an adventure that mirrors the real life adventure the pair had previously been caught up in, before the third component of the story (Gil) is brought into the world of Cecilia... a place that is completely alien to his world of mansions, film premieres and celebrity parties!! These elements might sound confusing within the context of a review, however, the way Allen so casually places them within the plot is amazing. He never lets his ideas dwarf the story at hand, keeping the focus on the characters, whilst, simultaneously, playing a number of subtle games around them.

The concept of fictional characters invading the world of the living (and vice-versa) is never fully explained, so really, it requires a great leap of faith and a little suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience to really buy into the 'deeper' aspects of the film. As a result, I think the film can be interpreted on two different levels... either the whole thing is just a series of unexplainable phenomenon, making The Purple Rose of Cairo a fantasy film as enchanting as Who Framed Roger Rabbit or E.T., or the whole thing can be seen as a figment of Cecilia's imagination. The film ends in such a way that Allen seems to be suggesting that none of these events ever took place... creating a circular narrative that makes it easy for us to see the journey that the character has (supposedly) undertaken to be completely redundant; something that has merely destroyed her faith in the world more so than before, and perhaps, left her even more desperate to experience the warming glow and friendly familiarity of the nearest cinema screen.

As well as Farrow in the lead, there is fine support from Jeff Daniels as the exuberant character Tom Baxter and his bemused and frantic cinematic creator Gil - who manages to give the film a sense of heart, but also a bitter undercurrent - as well as small roles for Danny Aiello (as Cecilia's bullying husband Monk) and Allen regular Diane Wiest (as a local prostitute who helps Tom find his feet in the real world). There's also some nice cameos from Edward Herrmann, Van Johnson, Zoë Caldwell and Milo O'Shea as some of Tom's bewildered supporting characters, left to sit and (literally) chew the scenery, as they find themselves without their pivotal lead player. The ending might be a little too downbeat for some... not wanting to give too much away, but Alan does have a tendency to leave his characters high and dry, sacrificing the feel good factor in favour of some important life lessons, and the intrusion of real-life's cynical streak.

Regardless, The Purple Rose of Cairo is a fantastic film... one that draws you in with it's subtle and believable characterisations and eventually takes you completely by surprise with the deep emotional resonance of the plot. For me, it's one of Allen's masterpieces, and is proof that (along with Bullets Over Broadway) that he doesn't need to be in the film to deliver solid entertainment. It's certainly not as light and as frivolous as say, Love and Death, Annie Hall or Broadway Danny Rose, but it's lighter than the likes of Interiors, Another Woman and Manhattan. As a result, it'll probably appeal to the kind of people who don't normally appreciate Allen's particular blend of cinema, but really, regardless of personal tastes, this is a fantastic film... one that probably deserves to be worshipped alongside the likes of The Godfather, Taxi D