A moveable feast

Rating: Null/10 (18 July 2011)

Those who have enjoyed the summary-lined Hemingway's mesmerizing work will find particular pleasure in this latest Woody Allen work which, although failing to bring home a trophy for him from Cannes, was received favourably generally, even from some one-time Allen fans who have long since turned sceptical. To loyal hard-core Allen fans, however, Woody is always Woody: loved, enjoyed and appreciated.
The story line progresses along two parallel worlds. In day time, protagonist American screen writer Gil (Owen Wilson) is spending a working holiday in Paris with his materialistic and shallow girlfriend Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her wealthy parents. He is undertaking an endeavour to write a novel about his favourite corner in time and space: Paris in the 20s. At night, he is magically transported precisely there by a mysterious horse-drawn carriage arriving at midnight at a certain spot in town. Through a wormhole or whatever, he arrived in the distinguished company the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Cole Porter, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, T.S. Eliot,... with Stein actually critiquing his manuscript, bestowing valuable advices.
The magnificent cast include some of the best in today's movie world. Even non Allen fans probably know that if he doesn't appear in his own movie, he'll have a proxy character (e.g. Larry David in "Whatever works") – an elderly, nerdy intellectual. In this movie, Wilson is surprisingly convincing as a young version of this proxy character, replacing his customary comedy persona with disarming sincerity and simplicity. An unfamiliar blond McAdams deserves credit in taking up her not particularly endearing role and making it work. Another well-played unlikable character is Michael Sheen's Paul, a "pedant" pseudo intellectual who keeps Inez occupied with ballroom adventures while Gil seeks his midnight escapade.
Gil's illustrious company during these escapades is portrayed by actors in a wide range of familiarity to the audience. Most impressive is Kathy Bates performance as Stein which prompted one celebrity critic to suggest a close resemblance to Hemingway's portrayal in "A moveable feast". Tom Hiddleston, whose "Loki" is considered by many to be the best performance in "Thor", is a living Scott Fitzgerald. Sparkling Alison Pill as wife Zelda is nothing less than show-stealing, similarly Adrien Brody's cameo appearance as Salvador Dali. All the other performances of the aforementioned literary and artistic icons are uniformly solid. Some comments to the effects that these characters being one-dimension completely miss the point. That is by design and in no way whatsoever reflect deficiency on Allen's part.
The brightest star in the entire movie has to be Marion Cotillard, playing Adriana, Picasso's distancing wife, Hemingway's object of passion and Gil's newly found love interest. Ever since her well-deserved Oscar in 2007, Coitllard has been well sought after by Hollywood, including prestigious project "Inception". She has always been heartbreakingly beautiful, but "Midnight in Paris" is where she has reached the pinnacle of irresistible bewitching charm. And in this movie, she bears an uncanny resemblance to Jacqueline Bisset (English, with French mother, probably best known in Hollywood for "Airport" (1970), and internationally in Truffaut's "Night for day" (1973)). There are two other lovely French-speaking actresses, not big roles. But impressive: Italian musician Carla Bruni cum First Lady of France as a museum tour guide and Lea Seydoux and Gabrielle, Gil's real-world new found love interest. What these two delightful actresses have in common with Coitllard, in addition to visual beauty, is the equally captivating beauty of English spoken by a French-speaking woman. On this, one would immediately think of Julie Delpy in "Before Sunrise/Sunset".