Review of Zelig (1983) by Anna B — 18 Nov 2010

This is such a strange little film. It's hard to know what to make of it. At the very least, it completely disproves the common criticism of Woody Allen that he just keeps making the same movie over and over again - this one is unlike anything else he's ever done, and indeed unlike anything anyone else has ever done.

It's presented entirely as a documentary, in deliberately grainy black-and-white footage with a very 1930s-sounding narrator telling the entire story. The movie mixes actual archival footage from the 1920s and 30s with new footage made to look old, and it's pretty much impossible to tell which is which.

You can occasionally tell that Allen's character has been inserted into real 1930s footage through the same sorts of visual tricks that won Forrest Gump a visual effects Oscar 11 years later. From a visual standpoint, you could analyze it endlessly and appreciate this film as a work of genius.

The way it recreates the feel of the 1930s is pretty much brilliant. There are even a couple of fake songs written for the story, which sound just as if they really had come from the period. And yet, ultimately, the movie feels like a curio more than anything else.

There's almost no acting in the conventional sense - there are only a handful of scenes in which we both see and hear Allen and Farrow, and while those scenes are indeed funny, they take up a small percentage of the movie.

A lot more of it is taken up by characters behaving silently while we hear narration, or still photographs. While the basic plot is creative and interesting, it's hard to invest emotionally in a story that's 90% narrated.

It's almost as if the movie didn't need the audience. The movie gets some chuckles, but is not nearly as funny as Deconstructing Harry or Play It Again, Sam or Annie Hall. This is worth watching if you're an Allen fan or interested in the history of cinematography and visual effects, but it's hard to love this movie the same way you can love his more conventional ones.