Rating:  4 stars (out of 4)

Annie Hall (1977): Dir. Woody Allen.  Written by: Allen and Marshall Brickman.  Starring: Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, and Paul Simon.  Rated PG for mild language, suggestive themes, and drug references.  Running time: 93 minutes. 

Annie Hall is a film simultaneously easy and difficult to watch.  Whereas most romantic comedies affirm the inevitable union between partners, Woody Allen dared to tackle the awkwardness and mess of romance.  After a series of entertaining farces, he had made a film that married his comic sensibilities to a serious consideration of courtship, heartbreak, and everything in between.

We open with comedian Alvy Singer recalling his stint with the eponymous eccentric  from Chippewa Falls.  They meet, fall in love, fall out of love, fall back in love.  Their relationship plays out in extended vignettes, like strands of memory.

The film feels both new and familiar to Allen’s canon, in that it maintains the more manic elements of his earlier farces, but finds the poignancy missing from those works.  Allen and co-writer Marshall Brickman conceive of characters that are specific, deeply flawed, and always interesting.  He and Diane Keaton trade witticisms and zing with chemistry, and it’s arguably Keaton who is more memorable as the scatter-brained Annie.  Allen’s light touch allows for scenes between them to breathe and live.

I’ve enjoyed Allen’s earlier films, but felt most of them were filtered through the lens of a stand-up comic.  Here, Allen fully embraces that persona, directing the film as a kind of stand-up routine that does not cheapen but deepen our understanding of the personalities and biases at work.  Scenes between Alvy and Allen seem so natural—not the place for grand revelations, but for subtle insights into the mechanics of their bond.

It’s nice to see Allen branch out while still retaining his identity, which transcends gimmickry and strengthens the pathos of his characters’ plights.  Annie Hall provided much-needed retaliation to the wish fulfillment rom-coms of yesteryear.  Gosh, I make it sound so cynical.  This is realism with a twinkle in its eye.

Next film: The Deer Hunter, 1978