Who Knew Owen Wilson Could Act or Be Good?

Rating: 8/10 (12 May 2012)

A family travel to the French capital for business. The party includes a young engaged couple who are forced to confront their differing views of a perfect life.
First and foremost, Owen Wilson deserves some kind of applause for this. He can play goofy, cheesy roles, but is not really a strong character. Woody Allen found a way to make that work here, making the timid Wilson a strong lead.
The film, of course, was nominated for best picture and won best screenplay. I think this is perfectly fair. Allen's strength is his writing. He is nothing more than an average director, but his scripts easily carry his films -- the intellectual dialogue is appealing without being pretentious. How he does that is beyond me.
And seeing Adrien Brody as Salvador Dali... nice.