“I met a wonderful man. He’s imaginary but who cares? You can’t have everything you wanted.”In my opinion, Woody Allen’s one of the best scripted, directed film and still it’s completely different from his other two best works- ‘Manhattan’ and ‘Annie Hall’. It avoids Allen’s routine formula of goofy people having relationship problem and affairs. Even Woody as an actor with his entire philosophical and absurd world with quirky one-liners are missing here and still light moments come from the brilliant theme where world of fiction and reality plays hide and seek.
Its story of great depression era where Cecilia (Mia Farrow), a poor waitress is struggling to earn and deal with his good for nothing rude hubby. The only pleasure of her life is watching B&W musicals at local theatre and daydreaming about those wonderful characters in reality. Woody breaks the boundary between screen and reality here and an imaginary screen character comes off the screen to romance with Cecilia. Fictional character is exploring real world and filling up Cecilia’s unhappily married life like a charmer sharing enough romantic and embarrassing moments. But life is reality and so woody brings real star that plays that character too in the film which breaks the two hearts. Perhaps Woody want to convey us that love is beautiful illusion of our reality. It’s so sentimental scene where Cecilia says adieu and the character returns to screen. What a touchy scene mixing emotions tangled between the real and imaginary.
Woody has brilliantly scripted and directed the whole film touching sentimental chords. The film is celebrating illusion of fiction world in common man’s life. Like poor Cecilia in the film, these imaginary characters become inspiration for many of us. We idolizing them and want to be like them- more courageous, more heroic, more funny and more romantic in our complicated real life. Screen can save us, thanks Lumiere Brothers for inventing this most wonderful magical world of escape. In both parts playing their characteristics, Jeff Daniels performance is just amazing one but the Cinderella of the film is Mia Farrow. Without her expression and act film isn’t same anymore. Apart from Keaton, she’s just fine revelation that Woody brings to his films. Woody’s point of making this film comes in a line uttered by fictional Tom Baxter- “I don’t wanna talk more about what’s real and what’s illusion. Life’s too short to spend time thinking about life. Let’s just love it.”
In a nutshell, it’s a film cent percent mandatory watch for anyone who loves and adores cinema.
Ratings-9/10
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