Review of The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) by John M — 13 Mar 2014

Vintage escapism. So this is about a young woman (Mia Farrow) who has it rough. She is working a low-end waitress job, her husband is an abusive deadbeat, and everything is looking bleak. On one particularly down day, she spends her time in a movie theater, watching the same picture, The Purple Rose of Cairo, over and over again.

Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels), the dashing character in the movie, takes notice of her, and literally comes off the screen to sweep her off her feet. This movie is chock-full of fantastic ideas, and it is made of that movie magic that will both break your heart and win you over with a smile.

The core concept itself is fantastic, and it is so charming, it is just infectious. This is from Woody Allen, who is actually a much better fantasy director than people give him credit for, and that is because this is not fantasy in the traditional sense; between this and Midnight in Paris, he has all the credentials you need to know about, and he has brilliant ideas that he just runs with.

While I would praise this because I never at any point knew how it would play out, one criticism I have to make is that it all ends on a super cynical note that feels contradictory to the rest of the film's upbeat tone.

.. but at the same, because it does that, it does make it extremely memorable, so it's a double-edged sword. This was meta before meta was a word, a great throwback to Sherlock Jr., and one for cinema lovers.