The Purple Rose of Cairo

Cecilia has it rough. She is a terrible waitress. Her husband is abusive and unfaithful. All she wants is escape. So she goes to the cinema to watch The Purple Rose of Cairo again and again. She falls in love with Tom Baxter, the character on screen. By some magic, Tom falls in love with her, too, and steps out of the film into real life.

What begins as fantasy quickly gets complicated. Without Tom, the movie starts losing money, putting the actor who plays him, Gil Shepherd, at risk. Gil tracks Cecilia down and he also falls for her. Now, Cecilia must choose between the fantasy who cannot survive in the real world and the actor who can.

The film works on an acute psychological level. Cecilia projects her longing onto the screen. Tom embodies the romance she imagines, but he's confined by the script that created him. He cannot adapt. Gil is real. He can improvise, promise, betray. He is the closest thing to Tom that reality can offer, and that's the problem, because real people disappoint.

In the end, Cecilia returns to the cinema. The desire for escape remains. It always does.