As the opening credits to The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) rolled, I knew I was in good hands.  I chose it basically at random.  Scrolling through the options on Amazon Prime, I paused on it to notice that the main character loves going to the cinema so much that the people on the screen start coming off it and into real life.  As somebody who enjoys a trip to the theater, I thought this could be fun.  And as it began, I noticed the style and said, ah, Woody Allen.  As confirmed a few moments later, he was the writer and director.  What he has done is as close to a perfect film for me, and I am finding there are few of his pictures that I do not enjoy on some level.  I wish his characters had more stable relationships, but he would probably tell you that such is not real life.  His controversial experiences with relationships would argue for that being true.  I am more of an idealist, and it is because of this that this film spoke to me.  You will have to read on to find out how.

A whimsical title like The Purple Rose of Cairo does not match with Cecilia’s (Mia Farrow) reality.  She is a waitress at a diner.  Given the fact that it is the middle of the Great Depression, she feels lucky to have the job, a fact that her boss reminds her of whenever she is slow about her duties.  This is due to her daydreaming, for which she can be hardly blamed.  In addition to her lowly employment and financial situation, her husband, Monk (Danny Aiello), spends his days with his friends instead of looking for work.  Additionally, he drinks excessively, brings other women around their apartment, and beats her.  Whenever she is able to get past her normal timidness to threaten to leave, he always vacillates between being apologetic and blaming his behavior either on the booze or her.  As such, her escape is the movie theater, going whenever she can.  It should be noted that during the 1930s, cinema attendance was much more regular than it is today.  Keep this in mind should you ever have the pleasure of watching this movie.  The most recent one to come to their New Jersey town is the eponymous picture.  It features Gil Shepherd (Jeff Daniels) as Tom Baxter, a wealthy archaeologist from Chicago who travels to Egypt to research ancient cultures.  In this movie within the movie, he is brought back to New York City by a group of socialites where he falls in love with a singer at a nightclub.  Cecilia is taken by the film, going to see it repeatedly.  It only adds to her absent mindedness at work, leading to her being fired. Upon leaving the diner, she naturally returns to the theater.  The movie starts as usual, but when it gets to the scene when Tom enters the swanky Manhattan penthouse of those who plucked him from the Egyptian dig, he begins addressing her.  She does not realize what is happening at first until he pushes his way off the screen and into the theater.  He then takes her by the hand and they run away out a side exit.  Meanwhile, the rest of the actors in the film stand around looking at one another confused, or argue with the other patrons who are just as clueless as to what has happened.  Meanwhile, Tom is reveling in the fact that he is free, explaining that he is tired of having to do the same thing over-and-over.  He also admits to have had an eye on Cecilia for some time, noticing her sitting there watching him for several showings.  She can hardly believe what is happening, barely protesting that she is married.  He can tell that her marriage is not a happy one, and starts talking immediately about them running away together.  Back in the theater, management comes in to converse with the players still in the film.  They then call Raoul Hirsch (Alexander Cohen), the producer, who eventually passes word on to Gil.  Gil does not take the news well.  He imagines that there is a double of him out there, potentially running amok and causing problems for his career that is on the precipice of stardom.  Raoul sees it differently, fearing that other Tom Baxters are going to be jumping off the screen in cinemas around the country.  As such, they decide to travel to New Jersey to see if they can fix the situation.  Back in New Jersey, an affair begins between Cecilia and her Tom, though it is evident that he does not understand the real world.  For example, he claims to have a ton of money to go out on the town with, but it turns out to be fake movie money.  Still, it is his earnestness that provides such a stark contrast to Monk that keeps her interested.  She is sneaking around with Tom until she inadvertently runs into Gil, mistaking him for the character instead of the real person.  Once the situation is explained to her, she takes Gil to meet Tom.  Gil demands that Tom get back in the movie, but he refuses.  At the same time, Gil starts to fall in love with Cecilia, seeing in her the same qualities that Tom does.  Cecilia and Gil spend some time together, and there appears to be a real connection between them.  Yet, Tom makes one more attempt at wooing her by bringing her into the movie and taking her around the fictional world.  It comes down to her having to choose between the two.  Ultimately, she picks Gil, and a chagrinned Tom slinks back into the film.  However, having packed up all her stuff, she goes to meet Gil only to find he has left for Hollywood without her.  Instead, she consoles herself by going back into the theater, this time to see Top Hat (1935) with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

I wanted Cecilia to be swept off to Hollywood with Gil at the end of The Purple Rose of Cairo.  For clarity’s sake, I mean the actual movie, not the movie within the movie.  Movie.  I felt that Cecilia deserved the happy ending.  Like her, I am a romantic at heart, and Hollywood is good for those romanticized versions of life.  This is the theme of the movie, and it wants you to know that true romance is not real.  There is a lot that a Catholic reviewer can do with these ideas.  With this in mind, the first place I would go is to discuss the scene that takes place in a church.  Cecilia takes Tom there, and he is immediately drawn to the beauty of a Crucifix.  She tells him about God and how He is the reason why we are all here, concepts which seem foreign to him.  This precedes Monk finding them there, who goes on to have a fist fight with Tom in front of the altar.  Though Monk eventually pummels Tom, Cecilia refuses to leave with her husband, saying that their marriage is over.  Upon helping Tom up, she is surprised to find that he does not have a mark on him, and that his hair is still in perfect order.  He comments that this is one of the advantages of being imaginary.  The fact that this happens in a church is the movie’s way of saying that Faith is also a figment of the imagination, which is untrue, of course.  While I do not love the symbolism of this part, I do feel there is something good about the idealized version of this story.  Faith is about inspiring us to something better and bigger than ourselves.  Cecilia is not content with her life, so she seeks out something else.  It would be nice if she turned to the Church for guidance, but either Gil or Tom would be preferable to the treatment she gets from Monk.  The Church is not fond of divorce, but it allows for separation when one of the spouses is a sociopath.  There is a fine line to walk, though, spiritually speaking.  God gives everyone what they need to survive and to love Him.  We do not need the things about which Cecilia dreams.  At the same time, there is nothing wrong with dreaming as long as it does not subtract from Faith.  God should come first.  It is not the way the lesson is presented here.  But, as mentioned in the introduction, this is only a nearly perfect movie.

Though The Purple Rose of Cairo leaves a little something to be desired, I would take it over many other titles I have seen.  It is a charming little period piece and it gets my full recommendation.  It is also imaginative, which should satisfy the dreamer in all of us.