The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

"I just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional, but you can't have everything." -- Cecilia (Mia Farrow), The Purple Rose of Cairo

In one of the more imaginative films in recent history, Woody Allen creates a story where a movie actor is able to leave the screen, and come into the life of one of his fans. But we're not talking about the movie star himself, we're talking the actual character from the screen. The film gets even more complicated once the actor who created the character is called to new jersey to try and capture his character in real life, and convince him to go back up on the screen where he belongs. Once the character has left the screen, the other actors and actresses become clueless; they have no idea how to handle the scene without him in it, so they just sit up there on the screen and wait for him to come back. The fictional movie being shown (entitled The Purple Rose of Cairo) becomes chaos. The producers are furious, and fear that the "syndrome" might spread to other theatres showing the film. Gil Shepard (played by Jeff Daniels) is the actual actor who has created the character of Tom Baxter (also Daniels) and is worried that his character's decision to leave the screen, and the controversy it's created, might be damaging to his film career as an actor. Confused yet?

Mia Farrow's character, a lonely woman married to the brutish, controlling Monk (Danny Aiello), is so eager to escape her reality, that she constantly goes to the movies. The Purple Rose of Cairo quickly becomes one of her favorites, and she sees it repeatedly. Finally, Tom Baxter notices her from the screen, and he soon leaves the screen to come down and talk with her. They leave the theatre together and begin a romance, which Allen handles with humerous broadstrokes.

Out of respect to those who have yet to see it, I won't reveal all of the jokes or hilarious scenarios that get played out in this film. In fact, the storyline I've given you so far only covers about half of the film. This is one of the few Woody Allen comedies that he doesn't appear in himself, which is probably for the best, as there seems to be no "Woody Allen" role written into the script (unless you identify Cecelia as such). Instead, he focuses all his efforts and talents on creating, writing, and directing an incredible, fantastical tale that explores the boundaries between illusions and reality. The screenplay was nominated for an Academy award, and the key actors (Daniels, Farrow, Aiello) give top notch performances that allow the movie to ring true, despite the outlandish scenarios. In an interesting note, Michael Keaton was scheduled to play the dual role of Tom Baxter/Gil Sheppard, but when it came time to shoot, it didn't quite fit in Allen's eyes, so he re-cast Daniels in Keaton's role (the full story is recounted in Eric Lax's Woody Allen biography). Woody has mentioned several times that, out of all his various pictures, this is his personal favorite, the film that turned out the closest to what he originally envisioned.

Release Date: March 1, 1985

Domestic Total Gross: $10,631,333

Distributor: Orion

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