See It for the Moveable Feast -- Ignore the Allenisms!

Rating: 7/10 (25 July 2012)

Ever wondered what it might have been like to live in 1920s Paris and party with Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, Gertrude Stein and all the other superstar bohemians who were there? Owen Wilson plays a 21st century screenwriter who visits Paris with his bride-to-be and is magically transported back to this fabled era -- but only between midnight and dawn. The results are hilarious,the portraits of the artists as young men and women are both wonderfully satiric and accurate. Owen Wilson is great interacting with these characters; I loved his slack-jawed disbelief and excitement. Lots of magical, beautiful romantic shots of Paris make this movie even more of a joy.
Unfortunately, many other elements of this movie are a drag. Allen always gets the best actors, but here gives many of them nothing to work with. Wilson's fiancée and her parents are unfunny caricatures of materialistic, philistine Americans. Whenever Wilson is with them, he becomes an annoying California blonde version of whiny Woody. Another really familiar Allen target -- the pretentious pseudo-intellectual -- is portrayed by the usually wonderful Michael Sheen and the results are equally flat. Allen's been egging eggheads since the 1970s; it was really funny the first 20 times or so, but not anymore.