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2011, 05-31:
Review of film: “MIDNIGHT IN PARIS” by WOODY ALLEN
The movie almost starts out like a travelogue from long ago-- with lengthy scenes of sights in PARIS (the Eiffel Tower, various gardens and Seine River scenes, Notre Dame Cathedral, etc.), accompanied not by dialogue but only by old songs from the 1920’s...
... When the dialogue starts, we soon learn WHY the film opened as it did: we meet Hollywood film writer Gil (the ever-present OWEN WILSON) & his fiancée Inez (RACHEL McADAMS). He wants to be a “serious” writer, & is deeply “taken” with the “CLASSIC” writers from the 1920’s like F. Scott Fitzgerald & Ernest Hemmingway...
... Unlike Owen, Rachel is highly materialistic & “STATUS”-oriented. She not only doesn’t particularly CARE about Owen’s desire to be a “deep” writer, she regularly says things that in-effect “PUTS-DOWN” Owen & his dreams...
... She’s abetted in her attitude by similar outlooks from her PARENTS John (KURT FULLER) and Helen (MIMI KENNEDY), who are traveling WITH them in Paris (for some business deal Kurt’s working on). Kurt doesn’t think much of Owen & his mind-set, & “tolerates” him mainly because he makes a lot of MONEY at the moment...
... While Owen wants to “share” his interests with Rachel, she’s cleared BORED by most of them & prefers to spend time with some friends there, a conceited “know-it-all” American “lecturer” named Paul (MICHAEL SHEEN) & his companion Carol (NINA ARIANDA)...
... They all go to see places like Versailles, and Rachel makes clear she favors going around with Michael & Nina & doing what THEY like rather than anything Owen prefers...
... Owen wants to MOVE to Paris for a while, loving the “romance” & life-loving “outlook” of people there. He likes walking around the city streets and “taking in” the “atmosphere”, whether in good weather or even when it RAINS (which he enjoys walking in)... But, Rachel wants to be around only “fancy” things & places, in complete “comfort”...
... One day, while Owen is walking thru a street, a bell tower chimes midnight & a group comes down the street in a classic “open” chauffered Peugeot limousine from the 1920’s... The group inside the car insist that Owen JOIN them in their jaunt around the City of Lights...
... Owen happily accompanies them, & marvels that the main couple there happens to have the “same” name as storied American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald & his wife Zelda (played by TOM HIDDLESTON & ALISON PILL)...
... As the nite goes on, they introduce him to a friend who “chances” to be named Ernest Hemmingway (COREY STOLL)... But, little-by-little, he sees they aren’t “assuming” the names of famous people-- they “ARE” those people, since Owen has somehow gotten involved in a “TIME WARP”...
... Owen is THRILLED at his good luck, as the famous writers ENCOURAGE him in his desire to be a novelist, & he happily keeps going BACK on other nites to the original midnight-hour “meeting point” for FURTHER get-togethers with the writers and their friends...
... Ernest (Corey) soon introduces Owen to his muse, Gertrude Stein (KATHY BATES), who agrees to read & critique the draft of his novel... And, at a party, he meets composer Cole Porter (YVES HECK), who joyfully plays various of his compositions...
... Songs from the 1920’s “Flapper” era constitute an important background element of the film... There are numerous interludes thru the movie from Porter’s famous (1928) song “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall In Love”, with its exceptionally clever lyrics utilizing double-entendres, uninhibited ideas & SEXUAL “suggestiveness” (“And that’s why Birds do It / Bees do it / Even ed-u-cated fleas do it—”, etc.)...
(... An interesting “sidelight” about that song, Porter’s 1st major hit out of his 800 or so songs: the lyrics are done in purposeful categorized “rotations” of lists: human ethnic groups are spoken of in the 1st refrain {i.e., “The Dutch in old Amsterdam do it--”}; various types of birds are covered in the 2nd refrain {“Penguins in flocks, on the rocks, do it--”}; marine life is spoken of in the 3rd refrain {“Why ask if shad do it? Waiter, bring me shad roe."}; insects (& centipedes) are covered in the 4th verse {“The most refined lady bugs do it--”}; and [non-human] mammals are dealt with in the 5th refrain {"The chimpanzees in the zoos do it—”})...
... Owen is having such a wonderful time with his new “friends”, he wants to “SHARE” them with Rachel... But, she’s soon “fed up” with his fanciful musings & leaves him waiting alone on some steps for the “midnight car” to come by, & thus NEVER MEETS his “companions” from the age he so loves...
... The more Owen goes out alone for his encounters, the more NEW famous people he meets—including Pablo Picasso (MARCIAL DI FONZO BO), his girlfriend Adriana (MARION COTILLARD), Salvador Dali (ADRIEN BRODY), Man Ray (TOM CORDIER), Luis Bunuel (ADRIEN DE VAN), & others...
... Rachel becomes more & more “distant” as Owen keeps wanting her to do “new” things, & her father (never having much liked Owen) has a detective try to “FOLLOW” him to learn where he’s spending his increasing “away” time...
... Is Owen “dreaming”, or is he really gaining “wisdom” and helpful ideas from his contact with people from the past?... Is he becoming “ATTACHED” to Marion who’s grown “tired” of Picasso?... Is he possibly also becoming “taken” with an antique-dealer woman who he keeps buying Cole Porter records from in his “real” daytime?...
... Will Owen start to also get “involved” in OTHER pre-1920’s epochs, from meeting some “earlier” famous people such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (VINCENT MENJOU CORTES) & Paul Gauguin (OLIVIER RABOURDIN)?...
... Will some of Owen’s “1920’s” friends themselves prefer to live in a time other than the one he HIMSELF wants to live in?... Is life likely to be truly “better” in a “different” time & place?... What will happen in his “real (or reel)-life” world concerning his relationship with RACHEL?...
... This movie (as you can tell from the descriptions above) is a sort of “combination” of a number of ideas Woody Allen has explored in some PREVIOUS films, such as STARDUST MEMORIES” from 1980, some “attitudes” from 1977’s “ANNIE HALL”, elements of 1985’s “THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO” where characters “shift” between real life and movies, & others...
... I found this new movie to be quite CHARMING & valuable, easily the BEST thing he’s done in many years... While containing a good deal of HUMOR, it does not “dwell” on “1-liners” so much as some “ironic” essentials as “commentaries” for what’s going on...
... Owen Wilson has been in so MANY films lately, I tend to get almost “worn out” by seeing him play what in various ways is the “SAME” individual over & over again. But, here, he’s sort of “restrained” & “IN character” more than usual, & thus I ENJOYED his work here since it in-effect “FIT”...
... The other “name” actors (like Adrian Brody & especially Kathy Bates) were also “appropriate” in their characterizations (rather than “standing out” in a bad way)...
... And, the way the scenes were set-up (with the old-time cars & sets & songs) turned out to be unusually EFFECTIVE in getting the subtle-yet-apropos “MOOD” for moving the film forward (rather than “impeding” our needed suspension of disbelief)...
... Accordingly, since I appreciated the successful efforts in this hard-to-make-it-work genre of time-shifting whimsy, I’m rating it as 8.5 out of 10 stars...
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