Lazy and simplistic

Rating: 5/10 (23 May 2012)

I've enjoyed some of Allen's recent films, as he works his way round Europe, gently and sometimes not so gently lampooning Americans and their unattractive habits and mores. Vicky Christina Barcelona was the high point of this series, subtle and beguiling and beautifully observed. By contrast, Midnight in Paris is a heavy-handed disappointment. It starts badly, with a pointless sequence of shots of the city, improves when we meet our hero, his shrewish fiancée and her appalling parents and then utterly fails to deliver on its very cute premise. The script is unfinished and never gets beyond its saccharine sweetness to tackle the philosophical and metaphysical questions that the premise poses. There were moments to be enjoyed in the casting and sometimes the action but the clumsy writing cut them short almost every time. It says a lot about a film when even Marion Cotillard fails to inject any real depth into her character. Lazy and simplistic, as are the critics and audiences that praised it so highly.