Country:
USA
Recognizable Faces:
Owen Wilsom
Rachel McAdams
Kathy Bates
Marion Cotillard
Michael Sheen
Carla Bruni
Alison Pill
Corey Stoll
Tom Hiddleston
Gad Elmaleh
Directed By:
Woody Allen
The easy conclusion after viewing MIDNIGHT IN PARIS is that the Academy has a scorching hatred for poor old Woody Allen.This is a movie, save for requiring a little 20th century general knowledge, who fits their required aesthetic like hand and glove. But you know the character a little bit, you know he's full or himself and that his movies are usually as full of himself as he is. Anybody with a historical knowledge of Woody Allen would walk into the theater to see his latest movie with a knife between his teeth, ready to call out his bullshit whenever he sees it. But that's the thing, Woody Allen requires effort to love, but he requires even more effort to hate. Better-Half and I stumbled upon MIDNIGHT IN PARIS in Netflix's novelty section and decided to see what the hype was all about. On top of being a cute, innocent love letter to Paris, it's a quirky movie that writers should really dig (I did) and that paces its wits a lot better than the usual Woody Allen movie. It's the best movie of his I've seen where he's not on screen and one of his best, most finely tuned works.
Woody Allen's films don't have much of a story in general, except the personal issues of his character on screen and MIDNIGHT IN PARIS doesn't venture that far away from his habits. It's a character driven movie, based around the life of Gil Pender (Owen Wilson), a successful Hollywood screenwriter, looking for meaning in his life and trying to transition to writing serious novels. He happens to fall in love with Paris on a trip with his wife Inez (Rachel McAdams) and ponders moving in. She highly disagrees. She's a rich girl who come from a very different world than him and loves obviously very different things than he does. To her, Paris is just another thing to talk about when she gets home. So Gil seeks a little inspiration in solitude and walks the street at night. At midnight, a strange car stops by to pick him up on the same corner, to bring him back to the Paris of the 1920s, the Paris of his dream where Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Dali, Bunuel and the lost generation were owning the place.
Like many others before me, I was first charmed by Woody Allen after ANNIE HALL and EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX * BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK, but ran into his more mediocre, self-involved stuff and got eventually bored with him. I know, I know, that's a cliché of a story as it gets for Woody Allen viewers. Thing is, he always managed to make things fun when he spoofed and rewrote history. He delivered here, with a strungout Hemingway (Corey Stoll) who I've seen a little bit of me in *. Alison Pill was a fun Zelda Fitzgerald also. I would've loved more of those Hemingway-Fitzgerald moments (we only had one), but the plethora of lost generation characters was highly enjoyable. Oh and kudos to Michael Sheen for playing Paul, the annoying intellectual know-it-all. He was very punchable.
While the movie isn't exactly a high achievement in cinematography, there's no weak spots about it. The artistic direction is absolutely gorgeous and every inch is studied to give Paris the proper light in deserves **. I also liked Woody Allen's patience in showing descriptive shots, letting the beauty sink in alongside the music, it's becoming something of a lost art. Reminded me of Herzog quite a bit. I have to say though, the script turned out to be a little weak. It's a common ill with the character driven stories that don't have much of a plot, they are fun for a moment, but whenever they have to wrap things up, they end up lacking substance. They are not meant to offer definite conclusion and whenever they do, it's not pretty. It feels skewed and manipulative. But still, I can forgive MIDNIGHT IN PARIS for going that because 1)Most endings don't live up to their stories and 2) It holds up for most of the movie. I watched it on a rainy Sunday at 1 PM and it's probably a movie best watched on a rainy Sunday. Very good movie. Not always consistant, but very good nonetheless
SCORE: 82%
* The best movies are those who address you on a personal basis, right?
** I have never been to Paris, but it reminded me of Buenos Aires somehow.
Woody Allen's films don't have much of a story in general, except the personal issues of his character on screen and MIDNIGHT IN PARIS doesn't venture that far away from his habits. It's a character driven movie, based around the life of Gil Pender (Owen Wilson), a successful Hollywood screenwriter, looking for meaning in his life and trying to transition to writing serious novels. He happens to fall in love with Paris on a trip with his wife Inez (Rachel McAdams) and ponders moving in. She highly disagrees. She's a rich girl who come from a very different world than him and loves obviously very different things than he does. To her, Paris is just another thing to talk about when she gets home. So Gil seeks a little inspiration in solitude and walks the street at night. At midnight, a strange car stops by to pick him up on the same corner, to bring him back to the Paris of the 1920s, the Paris of his dream where Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Dali, Bunuel and the lost generation were owning the place.
Like many others before me, I was first charmed by Woody Allen after ANNIE HALL and EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX * BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK, but ran into his more mediocre, self-involved stuff and got eventually bored with him. I know, I know, that's a cliché of a story as it gets for Woody Allen viewers. Thing is, he always managed to make things fun when he spoofed and rewrote history. He delivered here, with a strungout Hemingway (Corey Stoll) who I've seen a little bit of me in *. Alison Pill was a fun Zelda Fitzgerald also. I would've loved more of those Hemingway-Fitzgerald moments (we only had one), but the plethora of lost generation characters was highly enjoyable. Oh and kudos to Michael Sheen for playing Paul, the annoying intellectual know-it-all. He was very punchable.
While the movie isn't exactly a high achievement in cinematography, there's no weak spots about it. The artistic direction is absolutely gorgeous and every inch is studied to give Paris the proper light in deserves **. I also liked Woody Allen's patience in showing descriptive shots, letting the beauty sink in alongside the music, it's becoming something of a lost art. Reminded me of Herzog quite a bit. I have to say though, the script turned out to be a little weak. It's a common ill with the character driven stories that don't have much of a plot, they are fun for a moment, but whenever they have to wrap things up, they end up lacking substance. They are not meant to offer definite conclusion and whenever they do, it's not pretty. It feels skewed and manipulative. But still, I can forgive MIDNIGHT IN PARIS for going that because 1)Most endings don't live up to their stories and 2) It holds up for most of the movie. I watched it on a rainy Sunday at 1 PM and it's probably a movie best watched on a rainy Sunday. Very good movie. Not always consistant, but very good nonetheless
SCORE: 82%
* The best movies are those who address you on a personal basis, right?
** I have never been to Paris, but it reminded me of Buenos Aires somehow.