A bit of a departure for Allen on this one. _The Purple Rose of Cairo_ is a romantic comedy, sure, but it's light on comedy, heavy on romance, with emphasis on drama, and a twist of fantasy.
The movie starts off well enough: the first, and second acts are great, but the third act dips, and the ending is a real bummer, in a way that I feel to be a huge misstep.
We spend the entire film with Cecilia (Farrow), and the story feels like two plots jammed together. On one side we have Cecilia, and Monk - her abusive husband - on the other, we have Cecilia, and Tom/Gil - a whirlwind romance that only happens in movies. Yet another example of a story being lopsided in tone.
Now, all of this could have been overlooked, however the ending is really what undid all of this for me.
I get that the point of the movie is to express how cinema is there as an escape from how miserable life actually is, but then it's undone by how miserable **this movie's ending is.**
Ultimately, it's the disjointed tone that ruins _TPRoC_; I can deal with a depressing ending if I am watching a heavy drama. I can also handle it if I am watching a pure comedy, and the ending is played as ironic or bitter sweet. Point being, there's a way to do this, but this isn't it.
For what is otherwise a fantastic film, I would put this near the bottom of Allen's films. Go watch _Annie Hall_ (1977) instead.