Annie Hall

DVD review from The Movie Snob

Annie Hall (C). I am trying to actually watch some of the DVDs that I have bought over the years and never gotten around to watching. I saw this movie once in college and didn't remember it at all. On this second viewing, 20 years later, I am chagrined that this movie beat Star Wars for the 1977 best-picture Oscar. Although the movie, I suppose, a romantic comedy, it is neither romantic nor funny. Woody Allen (Mighty Aphrodite) plays a neurotic New York comedian named Alvy Singer, and Diane Keaton (Baby Boom) plays the title character, a ditzy gal who's apparently an aspiring singer. Perhaps the problem is that Annie is lovable but Alvy is not. He's pretty much thoroughly unpleasant, and you don't really want Annie to be with him. Tons of brief star appearances add some interest, such as Christopher Walken (Hairspray) as Annie's brother and Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park) as a random guy at a lavish Hollywood party. I was surprised in the credits to see Sigourney Weaver (Aliens) listed as "Alvy's date" in one of the last scenes in the movie, so I rewound, and although the people are too small to be recognizable, she is clearly towering over the diminutive Allen. And according to IMDB, Truman Capote has an uncredited cameo as a guy Alvy refers to as a "Truman Capote look-alike." Not particularly great. Or good.