June 14th, 2011 / 9:14 am
 Film

Expat Fever

I went to see Midnight in Paris last night. It was silly and predictable and obvious. And I loved it. Owen Wilson played a great Woody Allen. Rachel McAdams, a truly hateful soon-to-be wife. But their story is really just a vehicle to get the actual narrative rolling. When Wilson’s character, Gil, a hack screenwriter trying to be a novelist, starts going back in time  on some freak Cinderella-story midnight stroll and meets up with the Fitzgeralds, Hemingway, Picasso, Stein, Dali, Man Ray, Cole Porter, TS Eliot–there are many more–I couldn’t help but be giddy. I’ve always wanted to see these people in action–and there they were. Hemingway talking in Hemingway sentences, Zelda Fitzgerald’s buzzing mania, Dali rambling incoherently about rhinos, Picasso a little bald, Stein the gentle aunty.  Sure, Allen’s depiction was as Disney as it gets. Sure, Allen was indulging in pure fantasy, and I fell hard. I left the movie theater…dancing. This is not a movie review. I’m not generally a Woody Allen fan, even. This is a note about surprise. I went to see Midnight in Paris because there was nothing else worth watching, and I wanted to sit in the local art house theater with a very full glass of Pinot Noir, some Dots, and a handsome date. I’m surprised that make- believe can still give me joy. I’m happy that I haven’t totally given up on the fairytale. And it’s cute to see Wilson playing Cinderella.

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24 Comments

  1. June 14th, 2011 / 3:01 pm Ben Roylance—

      I enjoyed it. So much. I agree with most of this post. 

  2. June 14th, 2011 / 3:57 pm stephen—

      Cool, i’m planning on seeing it

  3. June 14th, 2011 / 4:52 pm deadgod—

      I thought Branagh did the best ‘Woody’, even better than Konigsberg.  Stein “gentle”?? – that is “fantasy”.  Broadway Danny Rose is a great fairytale.

      Dots make many activities better.

  4. June 14th, 2011 / 5:04 pm Tyty Lin—

      tinyurl.com/3p4aqqw

  5. June 14th, 2011 / 5:04 pm Tyty Lin—

      tinyurl.com/3p4aqqw

  6. June 14th, 2011 / 5:12 pm RLF at The Missouri Review—

      I second the enthusiasm – I’ve never seen such convincing literary celebrity caricatures, nor have I seen actors so able to speak WA’s lines, both the funny and unfunny ones, in a long time.

  7. June 14th, 2011 / 7:58 pm c2k—

      Jason Biggs did a decent, very-literal Woody in yet another Konigsberg production no one saw back on ’03.

  8. June 14th, 2011 / 7:58 pm xxy—

      good to see that james joyce had better things to do.

      so this movie is hot tub time machine for hipsters?

  9. June 14th, 2011 / 7:59 pm c2k—

      in 2003.

  10. June 14th, 2011 / 9:42 pm karl taro—

      didn’t like this movie. thought the literary caricatures were all obvious and easy. no new twists or new takes. the owen wilson successful screenwriter who wants to become a novelist never felt in any way believable or real. every image in this film, from contemporary Paris represented as post-card Eifel tower and louvre and so forth to the 20s represented as Hemmingway and F. Scott and Picasso, was a cliche. 
      And I mostly like his movies, even the recent not-as-good ones with Larry David and Kenneth Branaugh and Vicky Christina. 

  11. June 14th, 2011 / 10:52 pm leapsloth14—

      Why do Woody Allen leading men (once he got too old) try to play Woody Allen. Does anyone else find this odd?

  12. June 15th, 2011 / 1:29 am deadgod—

      – because they need the eggs.

  13. June 15th, 2011 / 1:33 am jh—

      The guy who played F. Scott Fitzgerald is uncannily similar in profile. Really, really good match.

  14. June 15th, 2011 / 1:34 am Guestagain—

      going to see it this weekend, but alone, so I don’t have to discuss it with anyone, will get the Sno Caps though, and a Dr. Pepper

  15. June 15th, 2011 / 2:14 am c2k—

      Palimpsestic nebbish.

  16. June 15th, 2011 / 5:23 am Janey Smith—

      Alexis? Owen Wilson as Cinderella meets Dali’s rhinoceros? Romantic, wonderful, hot. 

  17. June 15th, 2011 / 1:10 pm Jeje Lin—

      mcaf.ee/b5e0c

  18. June 15th, 2011 / 1:10 pm Jeje Lin—

      mcaf.ee/b5e0c

  19. June 15th, 2011 / 6:32 pm c2k—
  20. June 15th, 2011 / 8:28 pm deadgod—

      If Kierkegaard and Dahuna Barnes’s love child started a band with Dostoevsky and Origen, it would be that movie.

  21. June 16th, 2011 / 10:29 pm Nick Antosca—

      I love it too

  22. June 17th, 2011 / 6:33 am deadgod—

      Ha ha ha – Michael Sheen does a great Tony Roberts.

  23. June 17th, 2011 / 8:29 am mimi—

      Is there any young actress out there today that could do a great Diane Keaton?

  24. June 17th, 2011 / 8:32 am mimi—

      Or Louise Lasser ha ha ha ha