Purple Rose of Cairo is not nominally a science fiction movie. But when you have a movie where the main character walks out of a movie and into reality, then I feel comfortable labeling it science fiction. It’s one of Woody Allen’s more depressing films (and set in the Great Depression). But it has an exciting premise and is very well done.

Cecilia is lucky (relatively speaking). She’s married and has a job during the Great Depression.But she hates her job and her husband (actually trying to leave him several times). The one thing Cecilia really looks forward to is seeing movies. They are her entire life. When a new movie comes out about an archaeologist (Tom) who goes to New York with some people he met in Egypt and Tom falls in love with a singer. Cecilia goes and see is over and over again. Then one day, Tom notices her. He actually stops the scene and asks her why she’s always here. This is where the movie gets weird.

Tom then pops off the screen and runs off with Cecilia. He wants to learn about real life and she wants the excitement that Tom brings. Meanwhile the rest of the cast doesn’t know what to do. They’re stuck in the scene waiting for Tom to come back. They interact with the movie theater owners asking him to get Tom back into the movie, so they can continue. The movie studio, worried about bad publicity, gets Gil (the actor who plays Tom) to go and find Tom and get him back. Cecilia ends up being wooed by the actor Gil and the movie character Tom (both played wonderfully by Jeff Daniels). Allen ends the movie in a logical and depressing manner.

For people who aren’t big Woody Allen fans, this is a movie to see (mainly because Woody Allen isn’t in it). It has a fairly straight forward plot with a lot of laughs in a depressing setting. There are some wonderful lines from the actors who are still in the movie and seeing Tom jumping out of the movie and trying to learn about reality is fun. Highly recommended.