A more accurate (but far worse) title for the film would be Annie and Alvy, for the film is not so much a love letter to the title character, but a detailed, realistic and conventionally challenging examination of relationships.
From the beginning of cinema, especially in American filmmaking, romantic comedies always promoted the notion of marriage. In the screwball comedies of the 1930s, no matter what barbs were thrown, problems incurred, or borderline rapes performed, at the end of the film the two leads would solve everything by marrying one another. Even as the 1960s dawned and a cultural revolution began, the Rock Hudson/Doris Day vehicles such as Pillow Talk (1959) were still massive popular successes. At their core, romantic comedies always promoted the traditional concepts of marriage.
Against the Rom-Com Norm
Annie Hall bucked this entirely. The film opens with Alvy telling us that the relationship is over. Therefore we immediately know there will be no marriage at the end of the film, and in fact the idea is never seen to be discussed between Alvy and Annie. Instead, far from the couple taking the usual path of initial hostility to undying love, they start at the end and head to the start. In the beginning of their courtship, the pair are very much in love: the lobster scene is the best example of the fun they are having. We are then witness to the disintegration of their relationship: we see them argue, develop jealousies, and grow disenchanted with one another.
Presented chronologically, this would make for a depressing film. As a result, Allen cuts the timeline up, juxtaposing their good moments with their bad ones and creating a more realistic representation of a relationship. For every lobster scene there is a moment in which Annie and Alvy drift apart: witness their disparate thoughts on LA.
Alvy and Annie Want Different Things
Herein lays the essential difference between Annie Hall and a film like His Girl Friday (1940). Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell despite their conflicts work better together, and essentially want the same things. Their goals intertwine and override their differences. With Alvy and Annie, they are too self-centered to make their relationship work. Annie wants to try new things; Alvy doesn't. There is no middle way between them, no acceptance of the other's differences. Annie criticises Alvy's lack of adventure, Alvy mocks and distrusts Annie's explorations. Essentially, they are too unsure of themselves to trust the other, and consequently they drift apart.
When Alvy does finally pick up his romantic lead handle, and heads to LA to tell Annie he still loves her, it does not end conventionally. In most romantic comedies, Alvy would head to the city - despite his immense disliking of the place - tell Annie dramatically that he still loves her, and sweep her off her feet to a bright and hopeful future together. Instead, they have an understated meeting at a health food restaurant and Alvy awkwardly proclaims his feelings, which are subsequently shot down in a similarly undramatic way by Annie.
Tellingly, the only truly happy ending comes in Alvy's play, where the aforementioned scene is written to convention. This underlines the main message of the film: that real life isn't like the movies. This is not a new idea in the film world, many films have done it over the years. In a romantic comedy however it is almost unique, and it is here that Woody Allen created a realistic representation of relationships which has rarely been attempted again.
