THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (1985) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Writer/Director: Woody Allen Starring: Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello, Irving Metzman, Stephanie Farrow, Edward Herrman, John Wood, Deborah Rush, Van Johnson, Zoe Caldwell, Eugene J. Anthony, Ebb Miller, Karen Akers, Annie Joe Edwards, Milo O'Shea, Peter McRobbie, Alexander H. Cohen, Michael Tucker, Glenne Hedley, Diane Wiest
I was once engaed in a lunch-time argument back in high school over the need for films. My one friend deemed that they're not necessary at all, and that taking them away would cause no real drift in the morale of the nation. I disagreed vehemently: films are, above all, entertainment, and can enlighten people's lives, open their eyes, and cheer up the morale of the nation. And that's what Woody Allen's "Purple Rose of Cairo" is all about: films are necessary not only as an art form, but as a way to change lives.
The plot of the film, though, sounds gimmicky (and also very reminiscent of "The Last Action Hero"): a character from the movies comes down from the screen to be in real life with a woman whom he wants to meet. But that's what's cool about Woody Allen: he takes these kinds of ideas, and goes off on philosophical rants with them, but never loses sight of the plot or makes them too preachy. This is exactly how the film is played out, and is in retrospect a classic of cinema.
"The Purple Rose of Cairo" is the name of the movie in the film which our protagonist, the weak Cecilia (Mia Farrow), goes to see to escape from the unhappiness of her life. It's the Great Depression, and she has a horrible waitress job which she's no good at, a louse for a husband (Danny Aiello - who else could have played this role?) who takes her pay to gamble and drink, and is just generally miserable. Every week, the local Jersey theatre plays a new Hollywood film, and she goes every week, sometimes numerous times.
In the week of the film, the eponomys film is playing, and Cecilia shows up. It's some really hokey yet escapist film dealing with aristocrats who journey to Egypt and meet a happy-go-lucky explorer named Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels), and take them home with them for a "madcap Manhattan weekend." After numerous airings of it, and after some more life complications, Tom begins stumbling over his lines, and looks out into the audience and begins talking to Cecilia, who's the most startled in the theatre. He walks down off the screen, takes her out of the theatre, and declares he'll never go back.
The rest of the film deals with her relationship with him, and how they fall in love like in a Hollywood film, but with the major setbacks of reality. But while they're dancing and talking around town, the characters in the movie are stuck on screen since they can't turn the projector off or Tom will be stuck in the real world forever. Soon, Hollywood is notified, and the producers, and the actor who plays Tom in the movie, Gil Shepard (also Jeff Daniels - duh!), fly out to Jersey to stop him.
As the movie goes on, more and more complications emerge. Cecilia's husband learns of her new romance, and begins making brutal attempts to reclaim his prize from the fictional Tom. And Gil stumbles into Cecilia by accident, and soon, he's falling in love with her, making her chose between the fictitious Tom, and the real Gil, a rising star. She exclaims at one point: "Yesterday, no one loved me; now two people love me!"
What's magical about "The Purple Rose of Cairo" is how balanced it is in every way. Woody deftly creates multilpe themes and thoughts on film and its relation to reality without ever harming the story, but also makes the two work hand-in-hand. By having a reason for Tom to walk off the screen, he creates a fantastically leveled fable on life, and how film can truly affect it.
Woody's also very responsible about it. If taken out of hand, film can cause people to blur reality with the fictitious, which is made notable through Cecilia's relationships with Tom and Gil. Through this conflict, Woody shows that people often want to be just like the people in the movie, while at the same time, the characters in the movie want to be people in reality.
People often rate Woody's films as how funny they are. "The Purple Rose of Cairo" is no exception, with lots of hysterical jokes here and there, and brilliantly funny scenes. There are plenty of fish-out-of-water jokes, but they never feel forced, and in fact, seem quite inspired, even by today's standards. And any of the scenes involving the characters stuck on the screen, bickering and trying to pass the days away are funny as hell. But all of this has a kind of deeper warmth to it, allowing some drama to flow effortlessly through the narrative, but never seem like melodrama.
The acting's also excellent, especially by Farrow, who gives what is probably her best performance in a Woody Allen film. She posesses true likability, and plays her character as weak yet somehow optimistic when watching a movie. There's a shot where she's going to see the movie for the first time where she looks so ecstatic that she looks like she's going to burst. Jeff Daniels has a lot of energy in his roles, giving one of his best performances (special note: the split-screen effect looks flawless). Danny Aiello adds some human qualities to his role as a no-good husband. And we even get some cameos from Milo O'Shea (remember Durand Durand from "Barbarella?") as a priest in the movie, and Diane Wiest as (get this) a hooker (showing that Woody sure has a knack for writing hooker roles).
The final shot is one of the great Woody Allen moments: a shot of Mia gazing upon the movie screen where Fred Aistaire is singing "I'm in Heaven," and gradually, a small smile grows on Cecilia's face. For this moment, no matter what the trouble is in the world, she's in heaven like the characters in the movie. This is the power of movies: to cause people to relax and escape from the horrors of reality, if only for a short time. This film is a masterpiece.
MY RATING (out of 4): ****
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews