Midnight in Paris

As I mentioned earlier, I'm not a big Woody Allen fan. I went through phase in late high school/early college when I tracked down a bunch of his mid-period films - Alice, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Radio Days, The Purple Rose of Cairo, etc. It's probably significant that I remember very little about any of them. His films from the 90s forward failed to appeal to me although I tried here and there - Shadows and Fog, Bullets Over Broadway, among others.

But last night, Suzy and I watched his latest, the Oscar-nominated Midnight in Paris. It already had one strike against it, as neither Suzy nor I are Owen Wilson fans. Nevertheless, we gave it a try and were pleasantly surprised. The film is so lightweight, I'm surprised it's nominated for Best Picture which is something usually reserved for Important Films about Important Subjects. Midnight in Paris is about an easy-going, slightly listless screenwriter who is visiting Paris with his fiance and her parents. While there, each night at midnight, he's transported back to the 1920s and into the company of Earnest Hemingway, Salvador Dali, the Fitzgeralds, and other luminaries of the time. Daylight comes, and he finds his way back to the 21st century and his increasingly critical, bossy fiance.

It's fun to see portrayals of famous literary figures. Hemingway alone with all his talk of truth and bravery makes the film worth watching. The actor, Cory Stoll, plays him so utterly deadpan, it's hilarious. It's loving but also parodic of Hemingway's tough-guy image. One party scene ends with Hemingway looking around and roaring, "Who wants to fight?" It's funny.

Rachel McAdams plays the fiance as though Regina George, her character from Mean Girls, grew up and got engaged to Owen Wilson. She's snappish, shrewish, unfaithful, and generally uncool. It's in this that I found the movie the least effective. The deck was kind of stacked - her character is so unlikeable and unredeemed, we already know their relationship is doomed. It's just a question of how it will end, not if. That lack of humanity on her part lost the movie what could have been some valuable tension. Ah well. Marion Cottiard is appropriately beguiling as the muse of Picasso, Hemingway, and Wilson's screewriter. Michael Sheen employs an excellent American accent and creates a perfectly deplorable academic know-it-all you love to hate.

In the end, the message of the film seems to be that there really never was any kind of a Golden Age. People always think they're living in the worst times and that someone else had it better. By the simple, sentimental ending, the film suggests that all we have is the present and the best we can do is create our own personal Golden Age by spending our time with like-minded people. As I said, it's not complex, but it's charming and fun. Not a bad way to spend 94 minutes.