Interesting story weakly executed

Rating: 5/10 (20 July 2019)

I was excited to watch my first Woody Allen film, but I was quite disappointed with the overall experience. I'll get through some merits first, though, because I think Allen did some things well.
As a writer/director, Allen's unique approach to exploring the interwar period of Paris was great. The extravagant atmosphere, cultural nostalgia, and high culture and intellectualism (also, pretentiousness) were well-depicted and not too conspicuously expressed. Allen drawing parallels between the protagonist's and Adriana's neo-traditionalist infatuations were also a neat addition. However, the film takes a nosedive as it progresses from the first midnight ride to the hastily wrapped ending.
One of the most obvious shortcomings pertain to the characters. Owen Wilson was an underwhelming lead as Gil Pender; he offered little in terms of style and expression. A struggling writer-turned-novelist in love with Paris and its cultural products, while also dealing with an increasingly precarious relationship, was rendered down into a dull caricature of a character by Wilson - to the extent that I was utterly annoyed by his presence in the second half of the film. Rachel McAdams, while her acting was decent, her character was totally unrealistic - which is largely due to the script. Her progression from a loving fiance to an outright douchebag was really hard to buy, and I thought Allen tried a little too hard in depicting her as a bad partner. Sure, it could have been believable if we saw some more development of Gil and Inez's relationship, but the writer rushed it to accommodate Gil's own love affair - which was also rushed, and awkward. The characters of the past were too one-dimensional; like, I get that Allen is trying to provide an accurate picture of history's great artists, but they were little more than cookie-cut individuals. A fine example of this was when all Hemingway could ever seem talk about were subjects of masculinity and valour. Or when Salvador Dali turned into a rhinoceros enthusiast - which, if it was for comedic purposes, fell flat on its face.. Or Gertrude Stein's (acted terribly by Kathy Bates) dialogues, which seemed as scripted and devoid of personality as a first-year history textbook. Some of the characters didn't even need to be there, as it would have had no negative impact.
The script had no imagination or flavour. The dialogues were laughably bad at times and generally awkward. The faults of the characters were driven by an uninteresting and simple script that produced the worst in the major characters and completely marginalized the secondary ones. I could not sympathize, let alone get to like, any of the characters except for Gabrielle, mostly due Lea Seydoux's charming presence. But that says a lot about the film - when a character who has less than 20-ish lines is the most compelling.
As mentioned, the ending was incredibly rushed and unbelievable, and the attempt at a poetic touch didn't really come off. I expected more from a renowned director, but maybe "Midnight in Paris" is merely a dud in his discography. I would like to watch another film directed by Allen, with a different writer perhaps.