Kids in the Annie Hall

Annie Hall (1977)
from IMDb


Romantic adventures of neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer and his equally neurotic girlfriend Annie Hall. The film traces the course of their relationship from their first meeting, and serves as an interesting historical document about love in the 1970s.

Annie Hall stars Woody Allen and Diane Keaton and was directed by Allen as well.  It won four academy awards including best picture and best actress.

I'd like to start off that I was not excited about this movie.  I had a closed mind about Woody Allen films.  Originally I didn't think I would enjoy the self deprecating humor that Woody Allen is known for.  However, recently after enjoying movies like Zombieland starring Jesse Eisenberg, Superbad and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World starring Michael Cera, I thought I needed to give Woody Allen a fair shot.  Besides it's on the list so even if the movie is awful I have to buckle down and power through it.

And I'm glad I did.  Annie Hall was a very good movie and I fully understand why it won all the awards it did.  From all the "Ferris Bueller" moments with Woody Allen talking directly to the audience to the cameos by Jeff Goldblum and the always great Christopher Walken the movie entertains throughout.  The relationship between Diane Keaton and Allen exemplifies the opposites attract standard that have been beaten to death by every film starring Katherine Heigl.  Diane Keaton plays the title character, a ditzy space cadet who falls in love with the overly anxious Alvy Singer played by Woody Allen.  The film has many laugh out loud moments including the animated sequence where Alvy has a relationship with Snow White's evil stepmother, a great scene with Annie and Alvy meeting separately with their therapist and Alvy rushing over to Annie's apartment at 3 AM to kill a spider because Alvy has "been killin spiders since I was 30".

Annie Hall was a pleasant surprise.  Although extremely hesitant about this film I could not be happier with the experience of watching it.  I have a new found respect for Woody Allen, as an actor and director.  When I began the movie I figured Allen's self-deprecating humor would become old rather quickly, but it was quite the opposite.  I laughed throughout the entire movie and even felt as though the ending was well deserved.  This is a highly recommended movie and I definitely have a better feeling about having to watch Manhattan, another of Woody Allen's films on my list.

Have you seen Annie Hall?  What did you think?