Rating: 
Summary: The best thing about 'Purple Rose' is its ending
Review: It is amongst the best of Woody Allen's diverse oeuvre, along with my favorites - "Love & Death", "Manhattan", "The Manhattan Murder Mystery", "Everything Says I Love You" & his more recent work "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion".
I won't spoil it for those of you who have yet to see the DVD but, in a nutshell, the bestest thing about 'Purple Rose of Cairo' is its ending with a twist. The ending made it less of a cliche but a well thought-out, sophisticated and touching piece of work. Watch it and weep!
Rating: 
Summary: A Most Enduring Myth
Review: Not only is this an essential add to any Woody Allen collection, it's probably one of the stories written by Mr. Yi that will far outlast any of his others, with the exception of Zelig. Please buy a copy and watch it every Valentine's Day, as it's the best flick to commemorate found love, lost love and the bitter denial of love ever filmed.
Rating:
Summary: I Liked it!
Review: So far this is the only Woody Allen movie I have ever seen and I liked it and I enjoyed the plot and I really thought that Mia Farrow and Jeff Daniels did some great acting and Danny Aiello did a fine job too and I highly recommend this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Good As It Gets
Review: Take a Woody Allen movie where Woody politely stays BEHIND the camera. Add a perfectly cast Mia Farrow as a waif-like dreamer of a girl, living in the grinding poverty of the 1930's Depression and married to an blustering, brutal man. Top it off with a brilliant dual performance by Jeff Daniels who is a cinematic film hero who steps out of the screen and the actor who plays this hooky playing fictional character. Cecilia (Mia Farrow) works as a waitress (on the verge of being fired). Her life is grim, living in a tenement with her no-account husband (Danny Aiello). Her one pleasure is the movies that she attends daily. Her favorite is "The Purple Rose of Cairo," and the explorer character "Tom Baxter" brings radiance to her eyes that never leave him. After multiple viewings, one day "Tom" falters in his lines, seems distracted, then steps out of the film and joins Cecilia in the audience. The cast and audience are suitably stunned; the cast enjoining him to get back on the screen so they can finish the movie, and the audience grumbling they didn't pay good money to watch the cast arguing among themselves. "Tom" is resolute, and out they walk, he in his pith helmet and explorer togs, Cecilia radiant. The movie industry is appalled worried about litigation and insurrection if characters start walking off the screen. Gil Shepard, the actor who played"Tom" is sent to the scene to talk "Tom" into getting back onscreen where he belongs. "Tom" clearly is innocent of what the "real" (as opposed to "reel") world is about. He is in love with Cecilia and she allows that he "is the perfect man. Of course, he's fictional." Real life "Gil," Tom, and Cecilia meet. The ending is surprisingly intense. Jeff Daniels is dazzling as Gil/Tom. He handles both roles to perfection. The interaction among Daniels, Farrow, and Aiello is flawless. Much as I wanted to thoroughly despise Aiello as the low-life husband, he managed to make me laugh and feel sorry for him with his bravado performance. All the jokes and humor work in "The Purple Rose of Cairo," which isn't the case in many Allen movies. I believe this is Woody Allen's valentine to his beloved movies. It couldn't be better. Even if you are a dedicated Allenophobe, see this movie. You won't be disappointed.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer
Rating:
Summary: Woody Allen's most Unique Film
Review: THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO lacks both the ultra-serious disciplines of his drama's and is also without the hypochondriac cynical New Yorker (usually played by Allen himself.) And if you remove all the films that contain those elements from his ouevere, you are left with the wonderful PURPLE ROSE. The depression serves as the backdrop for a brow-beaten woman's dreamlike story, swept away into the life os a movie character. Allen cleverly balances filmmaking in-jokes, with excellent characterizations, fanaticism and Hollywood in general. this is one of the few movies were none of the jokes fall flat. Includes a wonderfully heartbreaking ending. Thank you Woody. Comes in a much deserved widescreen format with an addictive musical score by Dick Hyman that sounds great. Part of the excellent Woodyt Allen 3rd box set.
Rating:
Summary: Real Life v. Reel Life
Review: This movie is so tender and kind and sweet--and then you are forced to ask of yourself whether life is as tender and sweet. The harsh reality of life for Cecilia versus her "madcap Manhattan week-end" poses for her and us the same questions. Will "escaping" our lives make them better? Isn't there beauty and joy in real life? The profundity of this movie is masked by its clever delivery and HILARIOUS scenes between the actors on the screen and those persons in the real world ("I'll go get the manager!"). Who will Cecilia choose? Why? How does it end? "Well, that's the movies kid!" See this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Real Life v. Reel Life
Review: This movie is so tender and kind and sweet--and then you are forced to ask of yourself whether life is as tender and sweet. The harsh reality of life for Cecilia versus her "madcap Manhattan week-end" poses for her and us the same questions. Will "escaping" our lives make them better? Isn't there beauty and joy in real life? The profundity of this movie is masked by its clever delivery and HILARIOUS scenes between the actors on the screen and those persons in the real world ("I'll go get the manager!"). Who will Cecilia choose? Why? How does it end? "Well, that's the movies kid!" See this movie.
Rating:
Summary: One of Woody's best
Review: Woody Allen has long admired the works of both Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini, and while he has done other movies that intentionally (and not very successfully, in my opinion) mimic those two great directors, I think "Purple Rose of Cairo" is his better homage to Fellini. He captures the same poignant combination of humor and pathos as Fellini does in his earlier masterpieces "La Strada" and "Nights of Cabiria." In fact, the concluding scene of Cecilia (Mia Farrow) staring at the movie screen, her eyes transforming from despair to hope (as her life has just gone down the toilet) is a mirror of the concluding scene in Fellini's "Cabiria." This is also Allen's most loving tribute to "the movies." Movies allow us to escape to a better world and--at least temporarily--to escape our selves. The cast is great--especially the wonderful supporting characters who seem right out of the Depression era, as are those who play the movie characters who get stranded on-screen when one of their colleagues steps out into the real world. While this may not be one of Woody Allen's most popular films, it is a near-perfect little gem.
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