The Purple Rose of Cairo
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Movie Reviews of The Purple Rose of Cairo
Movie Review: I love talking to you
Summary: 5 Stars
"How many times is a man so taken with a woman that he walks off the screen to get her?"
I had to laugh the day I watched this movie. I realized my bed is covered in purple roses. At least, that is the pattern. Who knows, maybe I will run off to Hollywood soon. I think for my whole life I've always had a fictional character living in my mind, that perfect man who is poetic, has a sexy voice and is wildly witty.
Cecilia (Mia Farrow) seems to be dreaming of the same man because had I been in this movie we could have fought over explorer Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels). He is adorable, dreamy and romantic. His innocence, optimism and sense of wonderment is completely cute. He is present, intelligent, passionate, takes life with a dose of humor and is willing to fight for what he wants. He also loves talking to Cecilia and she can barely stop herself from fainting in his presence. She is overwhelmed when she realizes her fantasy exists.
Ok, so he is fictional and as Cecilia would say: "He's fictional, but you can't have everything."
Cecilia is trapped washing dishes in a diner, while she would rather be dreaming. She is beautiful, open to possibilities, willing to trust a man who shows her loving direction and has a healthy radiance. When she is not working or dealing with her verbally abusive husband (Danny Aiello), she spends all her free time escaping vicariously into the characters lives at the Jewel Movie Theater.
Her life is filled with hardship, while the characters onscreen live in luxury. Her husband is verbally abusive and even hits her when she gets out of line. She dreams of being with a romantic character and the thought that she will actually talk to a real-life movie star seems to be her wildest fantasy.
Cecilia is a good example of a woman with low self-esteem who is very intimidated by her husband. One day while watching "The Purple Rose of Cairo," one of the characters notices she has been watching his movie over and over again. He is so impressed, he decides to step right out of the movie and meet her. It is the stuff of fantasy!
Not only does he want to marry her almost the minute he sees her, he defends her and romances her beyond anything she could ever imagine. She is literally transfixed by his idealistic, poetic nature. That is until the real-life actor Gil Shepherd appears.
There has never been a movie that so captivated me and amused me to the core. I loved the original ideas, fantasy characters, the movie characters talking to the audience and the comedic timing is beyond perfect. Some scenes are so completely eccentric, the hilarity factor bubbles over like champagne. I was still laughing at the same jokes while watching this movie the seventh time in two days!
One is left wondering: "Are there any other guys like Tom out there?" I think there might be one left, somewhere on the earth. This movie is hilarious, short, sweet, innocent and maybe even a little sad. We are never sure if Cecilia continues to think of her inner world as a fantasy mansion or if she starts to see the sunsets in her real world and finds the real man of her dreams.
As David Deida would say: "We must see that we are afraid of the thing we most desire, and so we live a mediocre life, never bringing to consummation the primary impulse of our heart."
A movie to make you think about how you are living your life and what you would change in your life if you could "really" escape into the fantasy of your dreams. You are left thinking that perhaps you could dream a fantasy into life.
~The Rebecca Review
Movie Review: I just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional; but you can't have everything
Summary: 5 Stars
Woody Allen's The Purple Rose Of Cairo ranks among his better films. The film centers on the experiences of a poor woman named Cecilia who is played wonderfully by Mia Farrow. Cecilia is trapped in a loveless marriage to a brute named Monk who is played by Danny Aiello.
Cecilia has a job as a waitress in a small diner during the depression and although she tries to work hard she can't help but fantasize and chat about the movies with her sister who also works at the same diner. Cecilia's only comfort is in the movie theater watching glamorous but highly contrived movies about rich people who aren't suffering from poverty and the scorn of her husband. Cecilia eventually loses her job and after catching Monk being unfaithful to her she winds up watching The Purple Rose Of Cairo endlessly at the small movie theater in their town.
Imagine Cecilia's surprise when one of the characters, the dashing all-American type guy Tom Baxter, decides to leave the film, jump from the screen into the audience, and run away with Cecilia! Tom represents the purity of heart and the true compassion that Cecilia longs for in her real marriage. She knows Tom is fictional because he came off the movie screen; but Tom maintains he's never going back because he wants to experience the real world with Cecilia as his new bride.
Of course, all of this horrifies the movie theater manager and the Hollywood studio that produced the film entitled The Purple Rose Of Cairo. How inconvenient this is for Gil Shepherd, too, the actor who portrayed Tom Baxter in the film! The movie studio executives and Gil Shepherd hatch a plan to get Tom to return to the movie--but will it work? What would happen if Tom returned to the movie but took Cecilia with him into the land of make believe?
The Purple Rose Of Cairo is a film you cannot afford to miss. Mia Farrow as Cecilia, Danny Aiello as Monk, Cecilia's husband and Jeff Daniels as both Gil and Tom all give some of the most convincing performances I've ever seen. Their performances moved me and engaged my attention much longer than I initially thought they would.
This movie deals with the universal human desire to escape the pain and boredom of everyday life so many of us experience and to replace that misery with a world in which there are no real problems and everyone has money or at the very least a secure job. Cecilia represents us all as she delights to Tom's world of relative innocence and harmony. Therein lies the true strength of this film.
The cinematography shines: I like the scenes in the movie house where you see the film being screened within Woody Allen's picture. The scenes filmed in the amusement park reflect careful forethought concerning lighting and camera angles. The choreography amazes me: I love the scenes in which both the movie theater patrons and the actors in the film are stunned by Tom's decision to leave the movie and they all move about simultaneously in ways that prove good judgment on the part of Woody Allen and his colleagues who worked on this film.
Overall, The Purple Rose Of Cairo will remain an excellent film as long as the human condition and the quality of our lives are imperfect. Everybody dreams of a world where their true desires are reality and their troubles disappear. The Purple Rose Of Cairo elegantly explores this theme with sophistication, wit and poignancy.
Movie Review: One of the sweetest smells in Woody's rosebush...
Summary: 5 Stars
If there is one Woody Allen film that I think anyone can enjoy, it is `The Purple Rose of Cairo' (although `Hannah and Her Sisters' is quite universal too). There is something about the way that Mia Farrow's character Cecilia connects so well with the average human being, and the way that her love affair with screen character Tom Baxter feels so genuine even when it is impossible. I just can't help but feel this wonderful feeling of closure every time I watch this movie (which has only been a few times since I just recently have been turned onto Allen in general). I just feel such a raw connection to this movie, and I know that many have felt the same connection.
The film takes place in 1930's New Jersey and follows unhappily married Cecilia as she smothers her sorrows by frequenting the local movie theater to watch a film entitled `The Purple Rose of Cairo'. Cecilia's husband is abusive and unfaithful and her clumsy demeanor has just cost her her job. Feeling low and worthless she decides to watch `The Purple Rose of Cairo' once again to lift her spirits only to have her world turned upside down when one of the characters, archaeologist Tom Baxter, walks right off the screen into the theater and drags her out the back door. Tom is everything that Cecilia needs and she him, but their romance is ill fated. Hollywood is up in arms at the fact that Tom Baxter's all over the country are walking off the screen and the film is suffering since none of the other characters can function without things back to normal. Cecilia's husband begins to suspect something fishy with regards to his wife's newfound affair and the actor Gil Shepherd, who plays Tom Baxter, is desperately trying to convince his character to return to the film from which he escaped.
The film sounds like frothy fun, and it is fun, but it is also far from frothy.
`The Purple Rose of Cairo' is a very strong character study on the fact that all of us make a difference. Even a small character in a film is there for a reason and without him the rest of the world ceases to operate. It also shows the desperation in all of us to break free from the confines of expectation and just be our own person, instead of what the world has conditioned us to be. Cecilia wants to be like the characters in her favorite movies and Tom wants to be like the average Joe sitting in the seat in front of him. We all want what we can't have, but in the end have to find that balance that makes us happy.
Woody Allen is a classic director, and the more I watch of his films the more enamored I am by the creative genius that he was (and at times still is). I have never been a huge follower of directors, always being more of an actor's man than anything else, but recently I've been researching directors and their body of work and I must say that Woody Allen is one of the most impressive. A lot of people that I know are put off by Allen's style of filmmaking, but what I find most impressive about films like `The Purple Rose of Cairo', `Hannah and Her Sisters' and `Alice' is that they have so much of Allen's style while building themselves into another bracket altogether from his more famed work like `Annie Hall'. This is without doubt a Woody Allen film, but it is an Allen film that any and everyone can enjoy.
Movie Review: Good As It Gets
Summary: 5 Stars
Take a Woody Allen movie where Woody politely stays BEHIND the camera. Add a perfectly cast Mia Farrow as a waif-like dreamer of a girl, living in the grinding poverty of the 1930's Depression and married to an blustering, brutal man. Top it off with a brilliant dual performance by Jeff Daniels who is a cinematic film hero who steps out of the screen and the actor who plays this hooky playing fictional character. Cecilia (Mia Farrow) works as a waitress (on the verge of being fired). Her life is grim, living in a tenement with her no-account husband (Danny Aiello). Her one pleasure is the movies that she attends daily. Her favorite is "The Purple Rose of Cairo," and the explorer character "Tom Baxter" brings radiance to her eyes that never leave him. After multiple viewings, one day "Tom" falters in his lines, seems distracted, then steps out of the film and joins Cecilia in the audience. The cast and audience are suitably stunned; the cast enjoining him to get back on the screen so they can finish the movie, and the audience grumbling they didn't pay good money to watch the cast arguing among themselves. "Tom" is resolute, and out they walk, he in his pith helmet and explorer togs, Cecilia radiant. The movie industry is appalled. They worried about litigation and insurrection if characters start walking off the screen. Gil Shepard, the actor who played"Tom" is sent to the scene to talk "Tom" into getting back onscreen where he belongs. "Tom" clearly is innocent of what the "real" (as opposed to "reel") world is about. He is in love with Cecilia and she allows that he "is the perfect man. Of course, he's fictional." Real life "Gil," Tom, and Cecilia meet. The ending is surprisingly intense.
Jeff Daniels is dazzling as Gil/Tom. He handles both roles to perfection. The interaction among Daniels, Farrow, and Aiello is flawless. Much as I wanted to thoroughly despise Aiello as the low-life husband, he managed to make me laugh and feel sorry for him with his bravado performance. All the jokes and humor work in "The Purple Rose of Cairo," which isn't the case in many Allen movies. I believe this is Woody Allen's valentine to his beloved movies. It couldn't be better. Even if you are a dedicated Allenophobe, see this movie. You won't be disappointed.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer
Movie Review: Good As It Gets
Summary: 5 Stars
Take a Woody Allen movie where Woody politely stays BEHIND the camera. Add a perfectly cast Mia Farrow as a waif-like dreamer of a girl, living in the grinding poverty of the 1930's Depression and married to an blustering, brutal man. Top it off with a brilliant dual performance by Jeff Daniels who is a cinematic film hero who steps out of the screen and the actor who plays this hooky playing fictional character. Cecilia (Mia Farrow) works as a waitress (on the verge of being fired). Her life is grim, living in a tenement with her no-account husband (Danny Aiello). Her one pleasure is the movies that she attends daily. Her favorite is "The Purple Rose of Cairo," and the explorer character "Tom Baxter" brings radiance to her eyes that never leave him. After multiple viewings, one day "Tom" falters in his lines, seems distracted, then steps out of the film and joins Cecilia in the audience. The cast and audience are suitably stunned; the cast enjoining him to get back on the screen so they can finish the movie, and the audience grumbling they didn't pay good money to watch the cast arguing among themselves. "Tom" is resolute, and out they walk, he in his pith helmet and explorer togs, Cecilia radiant. The movie industry is appalled worried about litigation and insurrection if characters start walking off the screen. Gil Shepard, the actor who played"Tom" is sent to the scene to talk "Tom" into getting back onscreen where he belongs. "Tom" clearly is innocent of what the "real" (as opposed to "reel") world is about. He is in love with Cecilia and she allows that he "is the perfect man. Of course, he's fictional." Real life "Gil," Tom, and Cecilia meet. The ending is surprisingly intense.
Jeff Daniels is dazzling as Gil/Tom. He handles both roles to perfection. The interaction among Daniels, Farrow, and Aiello is flawless. Much as I wanted to thoroughly despise Aiello as the low-life husband, he managed to make me laugh and feel sorry for him with his bravado performance. All the jokes and humor work in "The Purple Rose of Cairo," which isn't the case in many Allen movies. I believe this is Woody Allen's valentine to his beloved movies. It couldn't be better. Even if you are a dedicated Allenophobe, see this movie. You won't be disappointed.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer