Official Synopsis
Alvy Singer (Allen) is one of Manhattan’s most brilliant comedians, but when it comes to romance, his delivery needs a little work. Introduced by his best friend, Rob (Tony Roberts), Alvy falls in love with the ditzy but delightful nightclub singer Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). When Alvy’s own insecurities sabotage the affair, Annie is forced to leave Alvy for a new life – and lover (Paul Simon) – in Los Angeles. Knowing he may have lost Annie forever, Alvy’s willing to go to any lengths – even driving L.A.’s freeways – to recapture the only thing that ever mattered…true love.
While Woody Allen’s neurotic personality can get a little old in this film, the humor, the flow to it all makes this one of the better ‘dating’ movies in the last 40 years. No one is perfect in this movie and both Woody Allen and Diane Keaton say as much through their characters. The way that Woody Allen constructs the timeline for Alvy and Annie, seems to keep flavor in the film, and life in the characters. Starting backwards, the movie goes into how Alvy and Annie came to be and what they did in their own lives to get to the point of meeting each other. It’s like watching a comedy version of Inception, where you delve deeper and deeper into one of the characters’ past, and their mind. This type of structure allows for plenty of depth to the story and to the characters.
Some of the more brilliant moments of the film include Alvy pulling out Marshall McLuhan after arguing with a fellow movie goer about his insights into McLuhan’s work. You also get a great moment with Christopher Walken’s Duane Hall, a sick artist who describes to Alvy his desire to turn the wheel of the family car into on coming traffic, which Alvy doesn’t respond to well at all. The kicker? Duane drives Alvy and Annie to the airport after that conversation. The movie is sprinkled with memorable moments, which fit perfectly into the place where they are needed.
Annie Hall is beautifully written (it won an Oscar for screenwriting in 1978), acted and edited. It’s probably Woody Allen’s best known work, and rightfully so.
Now, as for the Blu-ray portion of this film, it was okay at best. This is another example of MGM/20th Century Fox having a rough time with the cleaning and transferring of one of its better known films. There is plenty of graininess in the picture, but there are moments of brilliance with reds, browns and yellows beautifully emphasized. Still, that doesn’t take away from the fact that MGM could have, and should have, done a cleaner job with this one. For a movie that is so popular and well-known, Annie Hall deserved a bit more time and effort in its HD upgrade. Even the audio lacks a bit with ‘mono’ DTS-HD.
On top of this, the release lacks features. I would have loved to see a ‘making of’ featurette or maybe some commentary (that would have been gold). Instead, it’s a bit of an empty Blu-ray release.
Great film, though!