My main objection to this film is that I just cannot accept Woody Allen as a desirable lover. I think he's ugly and that the character he portrays is highly unsympathetic. However, this doesn't seem to worry most people who have seen the film and thoroughly enjoyed it. The boys seem to feel that if Woody Allen can make it with the girls, there's hope for them too, and the girls seem to argue that Woody is such a mental giant and such a celebrity it would be an honor to be seen in his company!
Once you accept the romantic scenes as perfectly natural and even desirable, and once you accept the Woody Allen character as the sympathetic hero he obviously wants you to accept him as, then the whole film falls into place and you laugh at all the jokes and you become emotionally involved in all the situations and you identify with the hero in his battles against the other characters and against the city itself.
Identification completed, the Gershwin music, the skilfully framed, large screen, black and white photography, and the playing by all the other members of the cast (particularly Michael Murphy, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep and Mariel Hemingway) is then meshed by writer/director Allen into a very satisfying and entertaining whole. But I just cannot accept Woody Allen that way. I like him the way he was in "Bananas" and "A Walk with Love and Death" or even "Play It Again Sam" — the perennial fall guy!
Once you accept the romantic scenes as perfectly natural and even desirable, and once you accept the Woody Allen character as the sympathetic hero he obviously wants you to accept him as, then the whole film falls into place and you laugh at all the jokes and you become emotionally involved in all the situations and you identify with the hero in his battles against the other characters and against the city itself.
Identification completed, the Gershwin music, the skilfully framed, large screen, black and white photography, and the playing by all the other members of the cast (particularly Michael Murphy, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep and Mariel Hemingway) is then meshed by writer/director Allen into a very satisfying and entertaining whole. But I just cannot accept Woody Allen that way. I like him the way he was in "Bananas" and "A Walk with Love and Death" or even "Play It Again Sam" — the perennial fall guy!