"Zelig" is no one, a complete nobody with no prospects and no sense of individuality. He is an isolated man, an insecure and antisocial nerd (pardon the parlance) who has an amazing ability - he can transform into other people just by being around them. He is a human chameleon who never finished reading Moby Dick. Why Moby Dick? Maybe because that is funnier than say "The Great Gatsby."
Woody Allen's deliciously entertaining and highly unusual mockumentary is still howlingly funny from start to finish. Allen is completely convincing as Zelig, seen mostly in still photographs or faked newsreel footage where he stands alongside Eugene O'Neill or Warren G. Harding. Set during the late 1920's, it is conceivable that such a man like Zelig would capture the public's imagination and become synonymous with the likes of Charles Lindbergh. While adopting chameleonic capabilities, he transforms briefly into an Asian, a black musician, a "perfect" psychiatrist (which is what Zelig mostly believes he is) and even a mobster holding a cigar! Some of these transformations are likely to cause offense in 2025 yet, considering the time period it depicts, it only makes sense to bring up different ethnicities since Zelig wishes to be liked by everyone. To be fair, Allen as writer-director doesn't poke fun at other ethnicities, he merely becomes them without turning them into stereotypes (some will still find this film racist no matter what, call it cultural appropriation or whatever). Zelig becomes an instant freak show, exploited by his sister as if he was a circus freak. Allen digs deeper, showing Zelig as a human being who has a special ability that is never explained. The KKK never see him as anything other than a triple threat - you know, Jewish, black and a Native American.
The crux of the film and its humanity is Zelig's developing relationship to his doctor Fletcher (Mia Farrow), a psychiatrist who is trying to cure him of his abnormal condition. She invites him to stay in her country home and film their talks, with Zelig fully aware he's being filmed and still believing he's a psychiatrist. One hysterical moment has Zelig under hypnosis as she asks him questions and tells her that he's in love with her and that her pancakes are of questionable taste.
"Zelig" then dovetails into the amazing man's scandals, including fathering children with women he married. This causes a ruckus and forces Zelig to make a public apology, especially to the man whose appendix he took out ("If it's any consolation, I may still have it somewhere around the house".) Eventually, after being spotted in a crowd where Hitler makes one of his fiery speeches to the Nazis in a newsreel, Zelig eventually is back in America after Dr. Fletcher helps him escape. Their escape includes making a revolutionary flight around the world that not even Lindbergh could've bested - they fly the plane upside down!
"Zelig" is hilariously eccentric at every minute and has a warmth and sincerity to it - it feels like an authentic document of an authentic man yet it has a sunniness to it beyond its satirical trappings. Seeing it now, it feels like it embraces Leonard Zelig with a nostalgic glow, despite all the ups and downs of his life. His one regret is that he never finished reading Moby Dick. You just can't help but like Zelig for that.
