In theaters. Rated PG-13, 88 minutes. Trailer.
75 year old Woody Allen needs to stay in Europe. His recent films that have been set in America have been unworthy of his cinematic legacy while the European Match Point (London), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Spain), and now Midnight in Paris have all been enjoyable. Midnight tells the pleasant story of Gil, a nostalgic writer (Owen Wilson), his fiancee Inez(Rachel McAdams) and his bizarre and revealing experiences at Midnight in Paris. Click below for more on MIP (Priest, you'll love this one):
Gil and Inez's relationship is a mismatch as they head toward marriage. They have ended up in Paris tagging along with her parents, who clearly dislike Gil. Inez's friends Paul (Michael Sheen) and Carol are also in Paris, and Gil ends up getting dragged around listening to Paul's expert and pedantic opinions on everything. After Paul calls out Gil's nostalgia as a way of coping with an unsatisfactory present, Gil ends up on a walk back in time. Literally. He gets picked up in a cab and ends up at a dinner party with Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald in the Paris of the 20's. Through the night he befriends Ernest Hemingway and Cole Porter and has a chance encounter with Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso. This repeats over several nights and he finds himself falling for an intriguing flapper (Marion Cotillard) as he slowly realizes his relationship with Inez isn't working.
This film is very light, but isn't funny enough to be among Woody's best. Every scene with Sheen is a delight; I only wish Woody would've written about 20 more minutes of these scenes for our enjoyment. Owen is really good in this film. He plays a less hokey version of his usual self and carries off the time-travel bit with a hitch. McAdams and Cotillard are typically excellent as the present and past love interests. Adrien Brody as Salvador Dali is hilarious. The sequences in the past are reference heavy and funny - it is intriguing to think what it would've been like to encounter these artistic hall of famers in such an interesting period.
If you've been to Paris.....you'll love this film just for the scenery. Woody is constantly framing famous landmarks and beautiful boulevards into each shot, most notably a kiss at the pond where Monet painted Waterlillies.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Midnight in Paris - B
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1 comment:
This is a B for me as well. It's basically bill and ted's for the literary set, with a lot of the lines a little too obvious. That said, Owen is the best surrogate Woody I've seen in one of his comedies yet. He's the first one that doesn't seem to be doing a Woody Allen impression, probably because his own delivery is so unique but also relies heavily on the type of asides and stammers that Allen loves. McAdams is too easy to hate. You can't imagine how Owen would have fallen for her, and her parents are completely one-dimensional. Still, the city is gorgeous, Michael Sheen plays his character perfectly, Brody is perfect as well and Hemingway, while ridiculous, is great too.
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