Typical Woody Allen Setup

Rating: 2/10 (25 February 2012)

If nebbish nerdy males and female partners who are shallow, self-absorbed, and clueless strike your fancy, you obviously enjoy films by Woody Allen. This is so much in the recycled Allen genre that it does not warrant anything other than a nod to great Paris locations and period costumes. Always a fan of period jazz, this film does not disappoint either, but Cole Porter was done a few years ago with Kevin Klein, so "Let's Fall In Love" doesn't have the unexpected flashback. Even the introduction of La Belle Epoque, Maxim's and the Moulin Rouge with Lautrec, Gaugin and Degas, to Piccaso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dali, Man Ray, and Gertrude Stein is nostalgia light. Allen's retro-vision of the past is still too convenient, too clean, too "golden" to hold attention, or even want to invest a second viewing.
Performances of Kathy Bates as third-eye Gertrude Stein and Marion Cotillard are marvelous, but this is more a walking man's tour of the Paris cityscape than a story which hold the interest to the end, and is ultimately formulaic and predictable. Equitable in irritation are the performances of Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams as the mismatched couple whose relationship is brought asunder by the city of romance and lights. Sorry Woody lovers but other films are more intriguing at this time.