Basically a fun little movie to have a great time with.

Rating: 8/10 (30 January 2012)

It's easy to fall in love with this movie. It's simple, likable, charming. Basically it's a great movie to watch to forget about all your sorrows for a moment and be taken by the movie its settings and different time periods and characters along the way.
I won't say that it was one of my favorite movies of the year, it's being a bit too simple with its story but there is also very little to not like about the movie. The only thing I did not like the movie for was for the things it didn't do. But can you really hold such a thing against a movie, that still does work out for what it is.
The movie just would had been more perfect for me if it was a little bit more entertaining. I feel that it could had done more with its characters and certain story developments. The movie now, to me, feels as if its holding back at times and had even more potential in it. Perhaps this all could had been fixed if the movie was being just a tad bit longer. It's only 90 minutes short but I just don't see any reason for this movie to be that short really. With 30 more minutes it could had wrapped up certain story lines more properly and might had shown a bit more of certain characters as well, who were now hardly in it at all.
But like I said, it still does the things that it does well. What I like about it is that things just happen in this movie, without a clear logical explanation to it all. And why should it really. It's far more magical actually when a movie does not explain anything to you at all and it's easier to get taken in by it, without any unnecessary distractions.
It's also being really a love letter, not just to Paris but to a time period that is long gone already. A golden age, of parties, no worries and many different, creative talents, mingling in with each other. So many well known artist and writers pass through in this movie. This is were most of the movie its fun and magic comes from, in my opinion.
It of course also helps that they are getting portrayed by some great actors, such as Tom Hiddleston, Corey Stoll, Kathy Bates and Adrien Brody. But also Owen Wilson is really great and likable, as the movie its main character. Yes, it's still being a comedy but less off a comedy than you would normally expect from a Owen Wilson movie. It shows that he is also perfectly capable of playing some more serious and demanding type of roles. Other great actors in this movie are Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen, among many others of course.
And yes, obviously it also helps that this is being a movie that got directed and written by Woody Allen. Throughout the years he has always maintained his own style and most of his movies could be recognized just by its writing or even just by its dialog alone already. This movie also has some great, trademark, Woody Allen dialog and characters in it, as well as his typical and more subtle sense of humor, that is all being very welcome in this movie.
And of course the settings are just great. It's not very hard to get some beautiful images from Paris of course but this movie also does a great job at capturing its atmosphere, of both the past and present.
Simply a great, little, subtle movie to watch and have some fun with.
8/10
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