THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (1985)

Woody Allen might have listed THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO as one of his favorite of his own films, but it isn't mine.

Set during The Great Depression, lonely Mia Farrow is stuck in a loveless marriage and a waitressing job at a roadside diner.  The only escape she has from her bleak existence is the local movie house.  There she can live a thousand glamorous lives without anybody bothering her.  That is until one fateful afternoon when she's watching a movie, The Purple Rose Of Cairo, when suddenly the main actor (Jeff Daniels) steps out of the screen and starts talking to her!  They run off together and get all twinkly-eyed at each other.  When the studio heads hear about their escaped character they understandably freak out and send real life actor (also Daniels) to go and get his character back in the movie by any means necessary.

Mia Farrow was magnificent, but other that than TPROC left me flat.  The photography was bland, the story's imaginative but still somehow lacking, the movie within the movie was lame, the ending was unsatisfying, Dianne Wiest was underused, I had zero emotional connection with any of the characters.  I just didn't care for it.  Worth watching, if you an Allen fan, but I've tried to watch it a few times now and it never grabs me.