The Best Paris Advertisement Ever Filmed

Rating: 8/10 (17 April 2013)

This movie opens intentionally kitschy; it couldn't be more boring: travelogue shots of Paris in sunny weather, in rainy weather, and so forth. The movie then proceeds to move along a different dimension: temporal, in exploring the city's glorious past, especially regarding the many celebrities of arts and letters who used to live and create there in various epochs. There again, Woody Allen comes dangerously close to kitsch -- but safely avoids slipping into that quagmire every time yet another superstar is introduced in the most typical fashion that one might expect to encounter him or her. How do you show Hemingway as "virile", and calling Paris "a movable feast", when all of this is so well-known and has been thrashed to death in countless articles and books and movies? Well, Allen relies on his unusual, "fantasy" story, bringing a new twist to everything that is overly familiar, and on fabulous performances by the entire cast, including Corey Stoll as Hemingway. Stoll's portrayal of Hemingway is so true-to-life and convincing you forget it should be kitschy due to your having known all of this about Hemingway before; Stoll's portrayal of Hemingway is the real thing, and no caricature typical of a comedy movie -- except in the sense that life itself can often be seen as a caricature or comedy. An equally superb performance is given by Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein; or by the trio (or quintet) of impossibly bourgeois US visitors, led by fantastic Rachel McAdams as the main character's fiancée. Owen Wilson is outstanding and authentic as an imitation Woody Allen; he has Woody's intonation and nervous, confused enunciation down pat, so that in many moments, you could have sworn you're watching Woody Allen, the actor, himself. It doesn't hurt that Owen is more handsome than Allen ever was, which makes the story's romantic angle more believable. The movie offers very nice philosophic overtones, in Gil affirming, leaning on Faulkner's words, that "the past is not even past"; and realizing that everything except for the present day is illusionary. And so, the movie is not only a celebration of the physical location of Paris in various time periods -- but also a powerful affirmation of the illusionary nature of *time* itself. While at the same time being philosophic and fantasy (resembling Allen's _The Purple Rose of Cairo_ of 1985), the movie also manages to be vintage Woody Allen comedy, with many amusing situations and even a few that made me laugh out loud. Congratulations to Woody Allen on such youthful effervescence at his advanced age!