Review of Annie Hall (1977) by Grant L — 02 Dec 2010

Easily one of the Top 100 films ever made, before watching this I had that statement in my mind and knew going in that is what I wanted to say about it and after watching it thats exactly what I can say. And as far comedies goes this is by far the smartest I have ever seen. It didn't have one forced joke throughout the whole film and the comedy is exactly where im going to get started on reviewing this film.

The comedy and jokes in this film are the main reasons why this film is as great as it is. The way Woody Allen wrote his masterful which was perfect by the way, made not one forced joke come out of any of the actors mouths which today I don't see a lot of that I always seem to find at least a few forced jokes even in a great comedy but this didn't have any. And the fact that Allen made you think with every joke they said and sometimes they would fly right past you but once you got it you knew how funny it was.

Also I have to mention the great performaces in this film by Woody Allen and the Oscar winning performace by Diane Keaton which this is still her best role yet which is saying a lot for her. But she always seemed to look on the brightside of things and when things were down she always wanted to find a way to pick them back up again. I really liked her character from start to finish. As for Woody Allens performance this is no question his best acting and not just that his best directing of his carrer as well. But I want to talk about his acting and his character. His accent made him very funny and the way he thought he was smarter than everybody may have been annoying or dislikebale to some but to me he really filled the role and it made him even funnier and at the end you can see that he really did have real feelings for Anne but it just wasn't going to happen. His character wasn't as likeable as Keatons by far but the chemistry they had together convinced me all the way,they really could act like a couple perfectly and when the two of them were on screen together thats when the film was at its very best.

The direction that Allen took in this film was smart and moved very easily but he tried a lot to make the relationship seem like Allen wanted it a lot more than Keaton did which it didn't really seem that way at first but after they started dating and falling in love you could see Allen wanted his character to want the most out of the relationship and he did. He does make you pay attention a lot because the jokes can sneak up on you sometimes and you have yo listen and think but I didn't mind doing that at all. He also liked to switch from film to personal opioin a few times with them watching themselves or watching themsleves in the past with Keatons ex boyfriends or with Allen's parents or that very annoying professor that was standing behind Allen in the line for the movie. All were legendary scenes.

This is probably the smartest script ever written for a comedy so I don't have a lot to say about that excapt that it was masterful and full of wit and made me think everytime a joke was said.

Some people will say that this is the greatest romantic comedy ever made but I think it has tough competiton with "It Happened One Night" but I think it is by far the smartest and made me laugh almost as much as that film did. Every Oscar this film won it derserved especially the one for Diane Keaton and Woody Allen's direction one as well and of course probably the most derserving the screenplay. If you love comedies and haven't seen this film then you need to and I think it will be something you can watch over and over again just because of how smart it is. One of the best films of all time. 100%.