Midnight in Paris

Deb 10 Me 10

As always, this review is more about me than the movie. First off, I gotta tell you how tired I am of Woody Alllen’s whining. He heard this criticism from others too, so he cast other people to play him in his movies and their whining was obnoxious too; the insecure neurotic that dominates many of his movies just wears me out. I really enjoyed Woody’s movies from the ‘70s, the slapstick shtick, moving into new themes with Annie Hall, and maybe a touch of Manhattan. In the ‘80s he fell of a cinematic cliff and took my appreciation with him. There were occasions I’d go see his movies, he’s obviously very bright and talented, just so wimpy. Time after time I was bored with the same neurotic characters or the blatant attempts to counter them, that I gave up.

Well, he’s back. I sat down ready to hate it. The opening montage was way too long, then we meet the players, and they’re the same assholes that appear in the other movies. Owen Wilson is the Woody Allen substitute, but he has a likeable sincerity, and you feel like there’s hope for him (when Larry David played Woody, you just hoped it would end). It’s set in Paris, as the title might suggest, and that was refreshing too. After a bit, the same tired characters started to appear as old familiar faces you hadn’t seen in a spell and could put up with for a while.

Then, out of the blue, the real movie began. New players were introduced and a story line that was smart, compelling and entertaining as hell. My anti-Allen bias was being erased and replaced with genuine affection for this movie. It was beautifully shot, well researched and full of pleasant surprises. There was even a moral to the story.

There was nothing in the synopsis or the movie trailers that would indicate what this movie is really about, and I’m not about to tell you here. It was a risky marketing move that means positive word of mouth is the only way people will go see this movie. This thing turned me all the way around from a negative number to a legitimate 9 or 10.

I can see this movie starting a trend in films.