Review of The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) by Josie L — 09 Jul 2010
An absolutely wonderful Woody Allen movie. This is one of his lightest, friendliest movies. The premise of the story (which won the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay) is simple and delightful: a troubled woman living during the Great Depression goes to see a movie so often that one of the characters notices her and steps out of the movie and into real life to meet her.
The story has some really funny and inventive developments from there. The dialogue is frequently hilarious. Mia Farrow gives the best performance I've seen from her so far, as a woman who is delicate and timid but lovable.
Jeff Daniels is fantastic as both the movie character she meets and the actor who played that character. The scenes with that character are great, because he only understands the simple romantic world of his movie and has trouble grasping the real world he finds himself in.
Danny Aiello is suitably loutish as Farrow's abusive husband, and Dianne Wiest has an amusing bit part as a prostitute. The movie-within-the-movie is a convincing re-creation of the style of 1930s Hollywood pictures.
The only problem with the movie is that it lacks a satisfactory ending. Overall, though, this is one of Allen's best.
This review of The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) was written by Josie L on 09 Jul 2010.
The Purple Rose of Cairo has generally received very positive reviews.
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