Pleasantville in Reverse!

Today's movie recommendation is a movie called The Purple Rose of Cairo which was directed by Woody Allen and released in 1985. Picture below.

The movie takes place in New Jersey during the Great Depression. The main character, Cecelia, is in an unhappy marriage and copes with her bad times by repeatedly going to the movies where she watches movie stars live glamorous lives up on the big screen. A new movie called The Purple Rose of Cairo is Cecelia's new favorite movie and she sees it so many times that one of the characters decides to walk right off of the screen and meet her. The fictional character, an explorer named Tom Baxter, immediately falls head over heels in love with Cecelia and decides to run off with her and never return to the big screen. In the meanwhile, people are in an uproar due to this strange occurrence and the producer of the film as well as Gil Sheperd, the actor who plays/created Tom Baxter, are sent to New Jersey to try to get Tom to go back where he belongs. In the search for Tom Gil meets Cecelia and becomes so entranced with her admiration of him that soon Cecelia has to decide which man to run away with.

This movie carries wit and charm from the first scene to the very last. The characters have an extremely innocent and charming feel and the story is a new and interesting one. This is definitely not a movie to pass up.

Fun facts:
- Woody Allen has stated several times that this movie is his most favorite out of all of the ones he has made.
- It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
- The carnival scenes were shot at Bertrand Island Amusement Park in New Jersey which had just shut down before filming.
- Michael Keaton was originally cast as Gil/Tom but Woody decided it wasn't right and brought in Jeff Daniels instead.
- Woody Allen was informed that if he modified the ending of the movie that it would've been a huge hit, but he refused stating that the ending is the reason he made the movie.
- Viggo Mortensen played a small role in this film which he was very proud of. Unfortunately for him they ended up cutting out all of the parts with him in it.
- The Purple Rose of Cairo opened in North America on March 1, 1985 in 3 theaters, where it grossed an exceptional $114,095 ($38,031 per screen) in its opening weekend.

This movie is rated PG. All ages should be fine watching this film.

Link to the trailer