A Movie You Might Have Missed #37 — Everyone Says I Love You

It's been 11 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.   

If you've even heard of this movie, I tip my hat to you. It is a rare one. 

This hasn't been available for a while so when I saw the dvd at Amazon I grabbed it. Why had I been on the lookout for it? Because this is one of my favorites of Woody Allen's movies. Few people know that he wrote and directed a musical and for those few who do know it, no one is neutral. We really liked it and, upon viewing it last night I was surprised that it didn't seem to have aged. The only tell that this movie is 17 years old is how extremely young some of the actors seem.

This is Woody Allen's love letter to musicals, Hollywood love stories, and New York, this is the tale of a wealthy family's year. It is told as a musical, with the large cast of well known actors all doing their own vocals. The songs are classic, fit into unexpected situations, and occasionally accompany dance routines. The actors don't come off as professional singers or dancers, but have just enough awkwardness to lend everything a sincere, realistic feel. As with many musicals from earlier times, the plot is a simple vehicle to move everything along and much of the pleasure is in seeing the movie unfold.