Allen at his best!

Rating: Null/10 (28 July 2011)

For those of us who like to idealize, this film is for you! You may not be surrounded by beautiful women or the greatest geniuses in your generation like lucky Gil, nor be rich and engaged to nice lady. Nevermind, some of us always think beauty/ perfection/ "meaning" lies elsewhere. Gil idealizes the past, our thing may be different, but the "mental process" is always the same. As Gil realizes not very quickly: we always find the present, whatever present, a bit dull, whereas the romanticized version of reality we choose is lacking all rough edges, dreary routine, limits to our ambitions. "Maybe people in the Renaissance would have liked to live in the age of a Khan :)". As GeneralUrsus (US) writes on IMDb: "(perhaps) we are never truly content in whatever station we reside".
Maybe our narcissism tricks us into believing that "if things were/ had been different, if we took this or that turn in life, etc.", THEN, we'd be happy. Gil isn't in love with dull Inez, who doesn't love nor even respect him, neither do her parents (at all), and probably even Inez in turn is holding high hopes for his pedantic friend who likes to be the only one talking.
Owen Wilson was a surprise for me. I really thought he was a concession for marketing reasons but no, in a way it's a wise cast decision: a tanned Californian blonde may be as out of place in intellectual's France of the 20's to make him a true foreigner, so his being "out of tune" with reality may be honest after all. He is a good actor, making us empathize with his bewilderment, curiosity and insecurities about his work. McAdams is not as beautiful as we've seen her before, maybe it's she being tanned, dyed and with high heels, it was surprising to me.
Just one quibble: maybe too "didactic" and stereotyped views of our famous authors, like Hemingway wanting to challenge everybody all the time, Dali looks like suffering from OCD with rhinoceros, etc. Or they addressing each other by surnames. But I am sure Woody is right: we are not all knowledgeable in the names of 1920's artists, let alone XIX century painters, etc. John and Helen are also stereotyped Republican dumb arrogant ultra rich Americans. We probably won't get to know anybody so rich in our lifetimes, but anyway, I feel they deserve a bit more "fairness" than what they get. But well, given this is Art, I found Helen's quip: "What's cheap is cheap" perfect for the "insatiable mother-in-law", in that she's almost universal :). Hemingway is particularly well cast, as familiar face Kathy Bates as Stein. I found Brody as Dali as somewhat distracting me from the real character, but that's probably me. LÃ©a Seydoux and Marion Cotillard vie for our hearts of romantic movie goers, it's hard to choose, Gil says it right when looking at beautiful working women at Pigalle: "I'm afraid I like them all :)". Adriana is probably more of an alluring tragic character, you can feel sadness by the way she looks.
My favourite character is Gad Elmaleh's private detective. A well known actor in France, from "La doblure" among others, here it's a clueless detective (!), a bit like all of us in this film, and maybe in life too. Paul is the funny to hate rival, a cautionary tale for all of us who think that trying to be intelligent and "know about many things" will make us interesting while it only transforms us into bores that even a tourist's guide will remember with a frown :). I'd have liked Carla a bit more of screen time, but her goddess charm adds light to any project she participates into. I hope she'll keep on acting :)!
I could go on and on about this film but what I want to highlight is that while it's an ode to the past, nostalgia, and unfulfilled dreams, it also cries in a beautiful way: "Seize the present!" and "Choose the best from what's available" for it's the only thing that's real, the only thing that we'll ever have. The Woody Allen reader has a funny quote about steaks that says it better than we could ever do, in an American "matter-of-fact" way that is refreshing.
Enjoy this movie, you just won't regret it!