PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM
A film review by Andrew Hicks
Copyright 1996 Andrew Hicks / Fatboy Productions
***
I never thought I'd see Woody Allen imitating Humphrey Bogart, and doing such a bad job to boot. But that's the premise of PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM -- that Woody Allen can't pick up girls with the flowery CASABLANCA dialogue or even act tough when he wants to. This is the guy who says he's been beaten up by Quakers and this time two bikers who pick up one of his failed dates. Most of PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM focuses on Woody's quest for love, going out on one disastrous blind date after another, little realizing the woman he really wants is his best friend's wife (Diane Keaton).
Woody is helped along in his journey by the ghost of Bogart, who pops up every once in awhile to give him advice on masculinity, which none of us would argue he needs. But obviously, the charm of Woody Allen has always been his "loser" alter ego who ponders endlessly the value of sex, death and God while trying to gain and hold onto a meaningful relationship with the opposite sex. PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM is hardly a deep comedy like CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, though, with much of it playing like a sitcom from heaven, especially the extended blind date scene in Woody's apartment that has him going painfully out of his way to impress his date while Keaton and her husband (Tony Roberts) look on in a mixture of sympathy and disgust.
This film is a fun mix of comedy and romance while still not being overly optimistic like MIGHTY APHRODITE. The ending parallels the "If you don't get on that plane, you'll regret it; maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but soon -- and for the rest of your life" finale of CASABLANCA but isn't just a ripoff of that movie. PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM offers beginning and ending bookends of homage to CASABLANCA as tribute (and of course the Bogart's ghost device) but is 100% Allen, even if it wasn't directed by him. Though Woody scripted (from his Broadway play) and starred in it, Herbert "Steel Magnolias" Ross did the directing honors.
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