An attempt to post a movie review
Jul. 29th, 2011 08:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwex(Let's see if LJ will let me post now)
Last Saturday night we got out to see a movie. One of my gamer friends told me my entire geek cred was threatened with revocation because we went to see "Midnight in Paris" instead of "Captain America."
Mostly I hate Woody Allen movies. Except I like Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask. You might hypothesize from this that I hate Woody Allen except when he's making a movie about sex. Midnight in Paris wasn't about sex, though it was very
sensual and somewhat sexy. The costumer should get an award just for putting Rachel McAdams in that dress. Also, French women are hot, pretty much throughout the entire film. Even Marion Cotillard looks good, no matter how much I dislike the flat/stick/flapper look. But I digress.
I don't think I'm spoiling anything to say that the plot of the movie revolves around the main character's fascination with 1920's Paris, a time when dozens of famous artists, writers, poets, and designers all congregated in the city, meeting and overlapping and influencing each other. The film plays fast and loose with all kinds of history and throws a lot of accuracy out the window, but as long as you agree that
this is Gil's fantasy Paris and not an attempt to recreate history it works.
Another surprising "it works" is Gil himself, played by Owen Wilson whom I have not previously found reason to like much. The first few minutes of the film had me cringing as I thought he was going to be just another annoying nebbish; however, Wilson steps up ably and gives you a portrayal of a man who is really lost in his life and his world. He's somewhat innocent but not wholly naive. He's gentle without being a doormat. He's likeable without being smarmy or needing to have a villainous villain to play off against. This is the story of a man offered what he thinks is his ultimate fantasy and how he responds to that.
The closest the film has to a villain is Michael Sheen as the overweening Paul, who claims to know everything about everything. To Woody Allen's credit he doesn't let the focus shift too much to Paul - the guy is just there and we all know what's going on but we're too caught up in Gil's adventure to care overmuch.
Finally, the best part of the film are the historical characters and the actors who play them with gusto. Kathy Bates is solid and wholly believable as Gertrude Stein. Corey Stoll is just short of over-the-top as Ernest Hemingway. And Adrien Brody pretty much steals every scene he is in as Salvador Dali.
The film has one weak point, where Allen just stops everything in order to hit you over the head with a wholly unnecessary bit of exposition - he should have trusted Owen and his own script more. But otherwise it's a fun and funny and really delightful romp.
Huge thumbs-up as a date flick, and those who said the movie is one long love letter to the city of Paris aren't far wrong either. Now there are three Woody Allen films I like.
Since it was an early film we went out for a bite to eat and a cocktail at The Friendly Toast. Drinks were good, if a bit odd (they do a lot of nostalgia-themed stuff, including cocktails) and the spinach dip was tasty.
Thanks to AHF for letting us get away a bit even if our original plans fell through.
(I can't resist one additional story bit: our original plan had been to see The Glitch Mob show at The Paradise. Unfortunately, the show was sold out by the time we were certain enough of kid-sitting to risk buying tickets. Therefore it freaked me RIGHT THE HELL OUT when the very first advertisement on the pre-movie reel was an ad for Fiat which used a Glitch Mob tune as the soundtrack.)
Last Saturday night we got out to see a movie. One of my gamer friends told me my entire geek cred was threatened with revocation because we went to see "Midnight in Paris" instead of "Captain America."
Mostly I hate Woody Allen movies. Except I like Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask. You might hypothesize from this that I hate Woody Allen except when he's making a movie about sex. Midnight in Paris wasn't about sex, though it was very
sensual and somewhat sexy. The costumer should get an award just for putting Rachel McAdams in that dress. Also, French women are hot, pretty much throughout the entire film. Even Marion Cotillard looks good, no matter how much I dislike the flat/stick/flapper look. But I digress.
I don't think I'm spoiling anything to say that the plot of the movie revolves around the main character's fascination with 1920's Paris, a time when dozens of famous artists, writers, poets, and designers all congregated in the city, meeting and overlapping and influencing each other. The film plays fast and loose with all kinds of history and throws a lot of accuracy out the window, but as long as you agree that
this is Gil's fantasy Paris and not an attempt to recreate history it works.
Another surprising "it works" is Gil himself, played by Owen Wilson whom I have not previously found reason to like much. The first few minutes of the film had me cringing as I thought he was going to be just another annoying nebbish; however, Wilson steps up ably and gives you a portrayal of a man who is really lost in his life and his world. He's somewhat innocent but not wholly naive. He's gentle without being a doormat. He's likeable without being smarmy or needing to have a villainous villain to play off against. This is the story of a man offered what he thinks is his ultimate fantasy and how he responds to that.
The closest the film has to a villain is Michael Sheen as the overweening Paul, who claims to know everything about everything. To Woody Allen's credit he doesn't let the focus shift too much to Paul - the guy is just there and we all know what's going on but we're too caught up in Gil's adventure to care overmuch.
Finally, the best part of the film are the historical characters and the actors who play them with gusto. Kathy Bates is solid and wholly believable as Gertrude Stein. Corey Stoll is just short of over-the-top as Ernest Hemingway. And Adrien Brody pretty much steals every scene he is in as Salvador Dali.
The film has one weak point, where Allen just stops everything in order to hit you over the head with a wholly unnecessary bit of exposition - he should have trusted Owen and his own script more. But otherwise it's a fun and funny and really delightful romp.
Huge thumbs-up as a date flick, and those who said the movie is one long love letter to the city of Paris aren't far wrong either. Now there are three Woody Allen films I like.
Since it was an early film we went out for a bite to eat and a cocktail at The Friendly Toast. Drinks were good, if a bit odd (they do a lot of nostalgia-themed stuff, including cocktails) and the spinach dip was tasty.
Thanks to AHF for letting us get away a bit even if our original plans fell through.
(I can't resist one additional story bit: our original plan had been to see The Glitch Mob show at The Paradise. Unfortunately, the show was sold out by the time we were certain enough of kid-sitting to risk buying tickets. Therefore it freaked me RIGHT THE HELL OUT when the very first advertisement on the pre-movie reel was an ad for Fiat which used a Glitch Mob tune as the soundtrack.)
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Date: 2011-07-29 10:47 pm (UTC)Have you seen Owen Wilson with Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon? I thought his relaxed surfer-dude persona worked really well in that movie, and of course Jackie Chan is nearly always likeable.