The Virginian-Pilot
©
Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it.
Go to Woody Allen movies, that is.
They're all looking for smart talk. More often than not, they get it. Allen's 41st movie in 45 years has arrived at Regal Mac-Arthur Center 18 in Norfolk and Regal Columbus 12 and AMC Lynnhaven 18 in Virginia Beach rather than Allen's usual local home - the artsy Naro Expanded Cinema in Norfolk.
The title is nifty: "Midnight in Paris." Surprisingly (at least surprisingly to me), critics have hailed it as his best in years. It's true that even the worst Allen dialogue is better than what anyone else writes for the movies, but "Midnight" is more escapist than eventful.
The premise is the fantasy of a modern hack Hollywood writer: An antique car transports the writer back to Paris in the '20s. (No special effects here, and not much imagination, either.) If you have F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau and Gertrude Stein all in the same room, or even the same movie, you have the right to expect more than you get here. Of course, if all we can get is "X-Men" in another theater, we'll take this shameless name-dropping and make do with it.
I liked one of Woody's recent movies, "Whatever Works," better because it had a lot of delightful Southern jabs and was cynical. If it weren't for Woody, we might forget that life is full of disaster and cruelty and it's only because of luck that we survive. According to him, there isn't much point in surviving because it all leads to death, and (drumbeat, please)... that's it. The end.
"Midnight in Paris" is gentler and suggests we can find solace by living in the past. If we glorify the past, well, it's better than the dim present. The future? It's hopeless.
If you're lucky, you laugh at this. If you're not, you're not a Woody Allen fan and you aren't going to this movie anyway.
Owen Wilson is miscast as Allen's resident dreamer who is threatened because he isn't the success he wants to be. He's a rich Hollywood hack writer, but he would prefer to be "important." Wilson is capable of handling Allen's rapid-fire dialogue, but he suggests more a hip hustler than a vulnerable nerd.
Rachel McAdams plays his shallow and materialistic fiancee, who puts him down at every chance, jealous of his success. My advice: Get rid of her and, while you're at it, get her out of the movie. She's an irritant. (I'm still waiting for McAdams to fulfill the promise of "The Notebook.")
Kathy Bates is brilliant as Stein, running an open house to literates. The rest, however, get no more than a roll-call cameo.
For those with degrees in literature, here, at last, is a payoff. You probably can't get a job, but this movie can make you feel superior to everyone sitting around you. The gin is cold, but most of the jokes are lukewarm.
There are great shots of Paris, from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower to Versailles Palace. Back when they did this kind of travelogue thing with "Three Coins in the Fountain," they called it shallow filler. With Allen, it's setting the mood for his latest city - after London and Barcelona.
To his most loyal fans, we'll always have New York. But that's living in the past.
Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com
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Couldn't disagree more....
I couldn't disagree more with Mal's review! Allen's film makes a point of the fact that every generation believes that the days of yore were somehow superior to those of the present. But it makes no judgment on whether we are correct in that assertion, rather on whether we are even qualified to judge that which we never experienced!
And Owen Wilson, miscast? Nay, Mr. Wilson was born to play this brainy, romantic daydreamer! Hasn't Mal ever seen and reviewed (if one even presumes that one must view a film to review a film, ahem) any of Mr. Wilson's previous work with Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller?
By the way, Mal, the intent of all the histo-culural "name-dropping" was not to enlighten the audience on some dissertation level.
What movie did you see?
I always wondered if movie critics went into a damp cave for their inspiration when writting reviews. I wonder no more. I viewed Midnight in Paris last week and not only did I find it very entertaining but apparently so did all (as near as I could tell) the rest of the audience. The jokes were both subtle and obvious. The story line was refreshingly, well, fresh. The acting by Wilson and whats-her-name were right on the mark. She was supposed to be a money-grubbing, social climbing, *B*, and she was. Wilson was supposed to yearn for a place frozen in time that was unattainable except for his fantacy, and he did. Bravo to all for putting on a delightful and gratifying performance.
No Rotten Tomatoes for you, Mal
There's a reason I don't ever see you quoted on Rotten Tomatoes, Mal --- don't think you've ever missed a movie's intent and message by a wider mark. Living in the past? I suppose Doris Kearns Goodwin only lives in the past because she's a historian, and writes great history.
You really missed it this time. After seeing Allen's latest, I haven't felt as good about life, love, and being a Francophile in years. Woody and I both revere the past, but definately live in the present.
Can't wait to see what you think of Malick's latest, once it finally gets to Tidewater.