Being his 17-year-old student puts her out of bounds in his eyes, as it would to any ethical teacher (and a romantic-comedy hero must be a largely admirable character). But at the end, after she has outed herself as an adult and a reporter, they do get together. As if you didn’t know.
Wee Bairn writes:
> And just once, can we have one of these where the two big name stars don’t
> get together at the end . . .
Woody Allen is the master of a variation on the romantic comedy that I have been calling (somewhat infelicitously) the anti-romantic comedy. In a romantic comedy, a couple (or already know each other) at the beginning. They encounter problems that prevent them from getting together or staying together. They solve these problems and end up together at the end. In an anti-romantic comedy, the same things happen, but at the end they realize that their relationship won’t work after all and they break up.
Woody Allen films in which this happens include Annie Hall, Play It Again, Sam, Anything Else, Manhattan, and Broadway Danny Rose. Many of his non-comedic films also end with a couple breaking up or not getting together. Romantic relationships only work about half the time in Allen’s films. The essential point of his films in this respect is that love is fickle.