I have to say that I don’t like supporting the work of scumbags and, in my opinion, film director Woody Allen is the complete definition of a scumbag. I won’t write any more vitriol than that and will only add that if I know Allen is involved in a project, then I simply won’t give it my support by watching it and certainly wouldn’t support it by paying to see it. Having qualified my view, I will review his film “Midnight in Paris.” The first time that I watched the film, it was the beginning just after the opening credits and I didn’t realize he was involved (I won’t even write his name in this review anymore). I kept on watching “Midnight in Paris” because it is clever, well-acted and just a boatload of fun to watch and admire. So, don’t watch the film because of you-know-who. After all, you’ll winding up liking it and if you do, remember that you don’t have to say something good about the work of you-know-who.
‘Midnight in Paris’
(2011; 94 minutes; rated PG-13; directed by Woody Allen and starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates)
A TIME MACHINE DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A TARDIS
(NOTE: I expanded this review with additional opinion and the updating of links on July 19, 2021.)
Just like a certain so-called reality TV show with family whose name begins with a “K,” I don’t watch (even to the extent of leaving a room if such slime appears or, if I control the clicker, turn the video feces off), I simply try not to support by watching the work of lowlifes. Yet, there is a certain director who is just as low as that “K” family, but he wrote and directed the wonderful film “Midnight in Paris.” Even if you don’t like this kind of film (there isn’t an action star to be found or a car chase), you’ll become enchanted by the enchanting “Midnight in Paris.”
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It is a story about a man who travels to Paris with his fiancée and her family and friends and hopes to find inspiration in writing his first novel. Through a quirk of fate (and in the rear seat of a vintage motorcar), he manages to travel back in time to the glorious age of the 1920s and legendary inhabitants of the era such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and more. Of course, the characters’ deft interplay brings the man insight to more than just his writing.
The cast is rock solid from the main characters to the smallest bit part players and the screenplay by you-know-who is certainly worthy of the Oscar it earned. The work of Owen Wilson deserved an Academy Award nomination to go along with his Golden Globe nomination for best actor he received. Even you-know-who deserved an Oscar for best director (he was nominated but did not win and was nominated but did not win a Golden Globe for direction) and received an Oscar and a Golden Globe for writing the original screenplay.
It is a total of all the sterling elements that makes “Midnight in Paris” shine much brighter than its middling performance at the box office (59th place for the year). The direction is without flaw; the actors are on their A-game at all times; and even I can appreciate the wonderful costume work for the three eras shown in the film.
I won’t spoil the delightful montages of the main character hanging out with Fitzgerald or Hemingway in a bar or bumping into a carousel of characters right out of a golden age of art and writing. Such details are better left to you watching again or for the first time.
Here’s somewhat of a plot rundown through the actors, their work and their characters:
- Wilson plays “Gil Pender,” who is a successful screenwriter and is now branching out with a novel. Wilson has just the right insouciance for the role and pushes his effort a bit to the edge of over-eagerness. Still, he does great work at all emotional levels and has a top-of-resume effort with this one. He was also delightful in “You, Me and Dupree,” “The Wedding Crashers” and he was nominated for an Oscar in “The Royal Tenenbaums.”
- Rachel McAdams plays rich girl “Inez” and she’s somewhat vacuous and totally self-absorbed (especially about material things). Although she does a great job, one of the tiny criticisms here is that her character needed a bit more screentime. McAdams has the ditzy, self-serving character down pat with “Midnight in Paris” and has been in “Mean Girls” and was also with Wilson in “The Wedding Crashers.”
- Although she gets third billing in “Midnight in Paris,” Oscar winner (and two-time nominee) Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein (I’m not using quotation marks around the names of real people portrayed here) looks as if she’s playing Kathy Bates – it’s not a bad thing, it’s just that you’ve seen this character before. Instead of conveying a different personality in each of her characters, Bates has the same range of emotion. In “Midnight in Paris,” Bates does a wonderful job in her limited time before the camera and while you might like more, I’m not sure what you sacrifice to get her. Bates was terrific in “Primary Colors” (one nomination) and I especially liked her in both the HBO movie “The Late Shift” about the Leno-Letterman battle in the early 1990s (click here for my review) and episode of “The Love Boat” (her third acting credit – click here for my review of the series).
- Oscar winner (and one nomination) Marion Cotillard as “Adriana” is the female lead here (sorry, Kathy) and is enchanting as the woman who, although initially Pablo Picasso’s mistress, becomes the target of Wilson’s affection. She is ethereal as the captivating woman who leads him through the 1920s and even travels further back in time with Wilson near the end of the film. Cotillard, who is the first actor to win an Oscar in a French language film (“La Vie en Rose”), conveys her character with a glance, a movement or her voice. It’s a complete effort. She was in “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Inception.”
- The best supporting actor among the historical figures is Corey Stoll, who plays Ernest Hemingway with a bit of his tongue-in-cheek. It’s difficult to get a handle on how Hemingway would have come off, but it would be interesting if he was as Stoll played him – always confident and the alpha person in any conversation. Stoll doesn’t let Hemingway’s force take over completely and so is able to portray a bit of humanity in the legendary figure. Stoll has been in TV’s “House of Cards” (his Golden Globe nomination) as well as “The Bourne Legacy” and has been in “Ant-Man.”
- Kurt Fuller is solid as “John” and he’s the father of McAdams here. Fuller does the best job in not overplaying his character and remains low-key as he tries to undermine his daughter’s engagement to Wilson. Fuller, who has a prolific resume of 187 acting credits (10 alone in 2014 and seven already this year), was great as coroner “Woody Strode” in TV’s “Psych” and was in “Anger Management.” He began his career in 1984 on an episode of TV’s “Knight Rider.”
- Léa Seydoux plays “Gabrielle” and you know from the first time that they meet that she’s going to play an important role for Wilson at the end. Seydoux, like Cotillard, gives a performance best described as enchanting and plays her character to perfection without trying to dominate any one scene. Seydoux has been in “Inglorious Basterds” and “Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol” from the same year as “Midnight in Paris.”
Other supporting actors portraying the friend with whom McAdams cheats in Paris, family members and even a tour guide do good work, but I’m not going to examine each of their efforts here.
More intriguing are the historical figures in “Midnight in Paris.”
OK … so, I’ll tell you more about the historical figures.
In addition to those mentioned, you find both Fitzgeralds, Josephine Baker, Cole Porter and Salvadore Dali. The film also brings you Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gaugin and Edgar Degas. It’s a simply inspired supporting cast of characters that most likely couldn’t have been brought to life as effectively as you’ll find in “Midnight in Paris.”
Little details rule here – such as Wilson giving a screenplay idea to Luis Buñuel, who would turn it into “The Exterminating Angel” in 1963 – and it’s fun to watch Wilson continue to be amazed by the passing cast of characters (especially since he knows so much about them).
“Midnight in Paris” was the 59th ranked film in 2011 with $56.8 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. It ultimately made $151.1 million on a relatively tame $17 million budget, according to Wiki. The No. 1 film was “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2” with $381 million and the only Top 10 film I saw in the theater was the disappointing sequel “The Hangover Part II” at fourth with $254.4 million. Here are the films from 2011 that I’ve reviewed:
- “The Hangover Part II” (awful sequel) – click here for my review
- “Horrible Bosses” (very funny raunch) – click here for my review
- “Just Go With It” (hilarious Sandler) – click here for my review
- ‘Tower Heist‘ (crappy caper flick) – click here for my review
Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):
- I don’t have much material to cull for this part of my review since most of the trivia involves that unnamed person who directed “Midnight in Paris.” I’ll pass on passing along any tidbits about him.
- Directly from IMDb.com: “When Zelda Fitzgerald suggests to Gil that they leave the party and go to Bricktop’s, she is referring to Chez Bricktop, the famous Paris nightclub run by Ada Bricktop Smith. Ada Smith appeared as herself in Woody Allen‘s Zelig (1983) as one of the modern-day ‘witnesses’.”
- Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “Rachel McAdams (Inez) and Michael Sheen (Paul) began an offscreen romance during the filming of this movie.”
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