Woody Allen movies are often original or so unoriginal that they become original (Manhattan Murder Mystery' comes to mind). The Purple Rose of Cairo', a title that says nothing about the real content of the movie, belongs to the first category. It is about a woman Cecilia (Mia Farrow) who enjoys watching movies and on one day she visits the movie The Purple Rose of Cairo' and Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) suddenly steps off the screen into the theater and into the life of Cecilia. The problem is that Tom Baxter is the character of Purple Rose' and knows only things his character is supposed to know for that role. More problems occur when other Tom Baxters in other theaters want to step out of the movie as well. Of course there is also the actor who plays Tom Baxter who is named Gil Shepherd. Both Tom and Gil fall in love with Cecilia.
Like I said the movie is pretty original. The way Allen plays with the possibilities of this fiction is done in a terrific way. There is a part where Tom ends up in a whorehouse and he has no idea what the women are talking about because his character didn't need to know these kind of things. It is one of the funny parts of the movie and a perfect example of how Allen uses the situations for funny moments.
It is also the problem with the movie. Near the end we grow a little tired with the same kind of jokes over and over again. Every time we see how Tom Baxter is incapable of doing or understanding things, or the opposite, because his character has no idea of real life. Allen is a great filmmaker and therefore the movie does not get boring. When we are not entertained with the jokes anymore at least we can be entertained with originality of the story. The closing scenes are pretty standard and predictable but the ride up to that point was so interesting I was willing to forgive him that. There was probably no other way to end this entertaining and original piece of cinema.
Like I said the movie is pretty original. The way Allen plays with the possibilities of this fiction is done in a terrific way. There is a part where Tom ends up in a whorehouse and he has no idea what the women are talking about because his character didn't need to know these kind of things. It is one of the funny parts of the movie and a perfect example of how Allen uses the situations for funny moments.
It is also the problem with the movie. Near the end we grow a little tired with the same kind of jokes over and over again. Every time we see how Tom Baxter is incapable of doing or understanding things, or the opposite, because his character has no idea of real life. Allen is a great filmmaker and therefore the movie does not get boring. When we are not entertained with the jokes anymore at least we can be entertained with originality of the story. The closing scenes are pretty standard and predictable but the ride up to that point was so interesting I was willing to forgive him that. There was probably no other way to end this entertaining and original piece of cinema.