Annie Hall(John)

I'm very confused about this film. I went into the movie thinking I was going to be laughing constantly and instead I was just intrigued by the story. There were some funny moments but I would say this is more of a Drama-Comedy than a Comedic-Drama.

The acting was amazing. I was able to relate to almost every character. A lot of the ideas about relationships that were discussed in the film, I have gone through. Woody Allen plays this neurotic, funny, caring person who falls in love with Annie Hall, a woman who is very introverted. As they fall in love, their personalities change. And if you've ever been in a relationship, that's exactly how it happens. Faults are found within your significant other that you didn't see at first. I think that's the biggest compliment to this film: they nailed the relationship angle perfectly. Woody Allen's brand of comedy is very smart. There is very little slapstick so I found myself thinking about every word he was saying: which is a good thing. But as I said before, I didn't find myself laughing as much as I thought I would.

Normally I would discuss the setting and the music, but I found both to be so insignificant against the story that I will just say both were good enough. I do want to talk about the way the movie was shot. There were some interesting things going on in this department. As an example, there is a scene where Alvie and Annie are having dinner with Annie's parents. At a certain point, Alvie turns to the audience, breaking the 4th wall, and starts comparing Annie's family to his. And what we see is a split screen of the two families. But it doesn't stop there. Annie's mother starts interacting with Alvie's family, actually talking to them. I thought this was very interesting and although it was very odd, it didn't remove me from the movie. This type of camera work was injected throughout the movie, and I enjoyed it immensely.

This was not a movie I expected to like, but I would have to say it definitely surprised me. If it hadn't connected with me in the way it did, I probably would give this one a fairly low score. But, I understood almost everything Woody Allen's character went through, so I will give this movie a 7 out of 10.

- John Murphy