Stephen Farber

“One danger of autobiographical fiction is that sometimes the artist doesn't have enough distance on his personal obsessions. In Annie Hall Woody Allen seems unaware of the possibility that some of us may not share his delirious infatuation with Diane Keaton. She has comic gifts, and a modest, dithering kind of charm. But I don't think I am the only one who finds her charms limited. The movie suggests that Alvy Singer loves Annie Hall because she is even more insecure and neurotic than he is; if that also explains Diane Keaton's appeal for Woody Allen, her appeal may also be too private for the rest of us to apprehend. As a director Allen treats his costar too indulgently; he even allows her to sing an entire song, and her rendition is far from thrilling.

“Diane Keaton's gaucherie keeps Annie Hall from being an incandescent romantic comedy; but at least she keeps us laughing. The exhilarating thing about Woody Allen's movies is that he has no sacred cows. His satire is gleefully evenhanded; virtually no one comes out unscathed. He certainly doesn't spare himself in dissecting the failure of Alvy's relationship with Annie…. At least Allen is aware of his limitations, and he's trying to stretch himself. Annie Hall falls short of greatness, but it represents a promising step forward by our most gifted and inventive comic artist.”

Stephen Farber
New West, April 25, 1977
[Tho Keaton's was not Far's only prob. w/ film]