Smart, funny, warm...and a pale shadow of the great silent films from the 1920s

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2012)

The Artist (2011)
This is a movie Woody Allen would have liked to have made. And if he had, it wouldn't have been his best.
A fantasy and a romance, a time trip (with some intentional slippage with fact), and an homage to silent movies and to early musicals, which of course were not silent.
The leading man is tremendously alive and talented, though he has that French leading man quality that American audiences do not quite warm up to. The leading woman is the kind of French woman all audiences love--full of life, an over-sized smile, a big heart.
I think silent movie fans will be torn. I mean, this is essentially a silent movie, but anyone familiar with silents from before 1927 will know a different kind of intensity and sophistication. Even a different and better kind of plot. To some extent, this dumbs up (no pun intended) the silent movie aura, making fun of the industry, turning meaningful plots into clichés. Even as visually beautiful as this movie is, it doesn't match the best of the old silent films for depth and surprise, at least at times.
But then, "The Artist" does pull off a relatively rare feat, making the most of what seemed like a genre long gone. It doesn't use affected tricks like add scratches to the film or extra camera shake. In fact, there are little techniques that are wholly modern, like the very slow tracking-in shot when a character is going through some important thought or transition (this has become a standard, almost inevitable technique in the last 20 years).
I'm not talking plot because the plot is almost insignificant. It's fun, it's warm. And it's a rehash of a lot of man meets young pretty girl who then makes it in the world of theater, or dance, or yes, the movies. And there are so many references to that other, better, homage to silent films, "Singin' in the Rain," it's almost painful. Or just sheer lightweight fun.
I didn't really love this movie, as you can tell, and I really love movies. It's really well made, sincerely artistic in its own 2011 way, and enjoyable. The sold out audience where I saw it last night loved it and applauded at the end. That's where most people are at, and if you go, you'll be happy. But I'll throw in that if you really do like the silent film aspects, and not just the referring to silent films as a kind of homage, you should look at some of the great ones from the 1920s. Really, truly, originally great ones.