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I happen to think Woody Allen is funny. Here is a poignant, light, airy film, which plays with the many themes in film, which all filmmakers at some point like to explore. Allen, though, does it in his own, almost slapstick, way without getting too abstract and intellectual about it.
The Purple Rose of Cairo, with Mia Farrow and Jeff Daniels, is as much about the nature of film, as it is a Depression-era movie, and a kooky love story (or stories).
Mia Farrow's character Cecilia, who has an overbearing husband who is out of work because of the Depression, tries to hold down a waitressing job, and is a regular at the town's cinema. She sits in the darkened theater, and is transported into the wonderful life of the film, with glamorous people living the high life.
One day, after she has sat through multiple screenings of The Purple Rose of Cairo for a whole day, Tom Baxter, a character in the film, decides to exit the screen and meet up with this woman whom he’s observed watching him and the film so many times. Different realities merge together for the remainder of the film: Cecilia's reality, the theater audience's reality, Tom Baxter's reality, the reality of the actor who plays Tom Baxter - Gil Sheperd, the agents' and film producers' reality, and of course our reality. And not to forget the interwoven realities of all these personalities.
The rest is an adventure of the imagination by Woody Allen.
