In an interview with L.A. Weekly,
Woody Allen said, “The human predicament is so
tragic and so awful that, short of an act of
magic, we're doomed.” Given his questionable
view of the human condition, one wonders what
the word “magic” means to him. There is little
indication of it in his latest film, Midnight in
Paris, a love letter to an imagined Paris in the
1920s. Set to the music of Sidney Bechet, the
film opens with a 3 1/2 minute montage of Paris
by cinematographer Darius Khondji's that is
little more than a travelogue
showing the usual tourist sights that you would
see in a video about a Cancun
all inclusive resort or Punta
Cana Dominican Republic. Mr. Allen seems
to be so enamored with these tourist spots like
the Eiffel Tower and five-star hotels rather
than showing the real Paris - the street
vendors, bookshops, cheese, bread, wine, and
pastry shops, outdoor cafes on the Left Bank,
and quaint streets loaded with charm - the Paris
of the Parisians.
As the film begins, we hear disembodied voices
chattering away over the credits. It takes a few
minutes to find out that we are listening to an
engaged couple, Gil (Owen Wilson), a hack screen
writer turned novelist and his shrill
fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) talking
about plans for their wedding. They are visiting
Paris at the behest of their wealthy parents,
businessman John (Kurt Fuller), who Allen lets
us know right away is a right-wing Tea Partier,
and his charmless wife, Helen (Mimi Kennedy),
whose interests seem to lie in spending
thousands of dollars for antique furniture.
Almost immediately we can sense that the engaged
couple may not be right for each other.
Inez is always on schedule, making plans and
demanding that Gil go along with her every whim.
Gil, on the other hand, (at first anyway) is
adjustable, willing to go along to get along,
not a good beginning for a marriage. As if we
did not have enough of insufferably shallow
characters, however, (Allen's desultory persona
is there in spirit), the director throws in old
friends of Inez, Carol (Nina Arianda) and Paul
(Michael Sheen), her pedant of a husband, who
Inez used to have a relationship with. It is not
a mystery why, after a few failed attempts at
socialization and sightseeing, Gil insists on
being alone to take walks at night to get his
so-called creative juices flowing.
The concept of the film is that Gil, while out
walking at midnight, is picked up by an antique
cab and enters a time
warp, traveling back to Paris as it was in the
Twenties, presumably an invigorating and
exciting time to be alive when ex-patriot
Americans and Europeans interacted with
innovative artists, writers, and musicians in a
Bohemian atmosphere. With an “Oh Gee, Oh gosh,
Oh golly” expression on his face, Gil meets and
hangs out with F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
(Tom Hiddleston and Alison Pill), Ernest
Hemingway (Corey Stoll), Cole Porter (Yves
Heck), Pablo Picasso (Marial Di Fonzo Bo),
Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), Salvador Dali
(Adrien Brody) Luis Bunuel (Adrien de Van), all
shown together like the director was testing the
audience to “Name that Tune”. Naturally, they
are all so fascinated with the exotic Gil.
What could have been a wondrous and entrancing
experience becomes a stupefying cliché in
Allen's hands. The 1920 artists are mostly
one-dimensional caricatures delivering “clever”
dialogue without spontaneity or wit, except for
Stoll's lively discussion with Gil, a scene that
begins to show promise for the film's direction
but is soon dropped. With some exception, most
of the characters resemble the cardboard cutouts
from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
Hemingway, the macho man, talks about his war
exploits and challenges Gil to a boxing match,
Dali pounds his chest shouting “I am Dali!
Dali!, Picasso feuds with his lovers and so
forth on into the night. Meanwhile, Gil becomes
smitten with Picasso's lover, the entrancing
Adrianna (Marian Cotillard) and makes his return
every night at midnight
in the same vintage car.
Gertrude Stein agrees to read and comment on
Gil's novel about a nostalgia shop. What else
would she do with her time? The film gives the
impression that life in that era was one big
party with important artists never doing any
work, never feeling lonely and depressed, and
never seeking the quiet places, suitable for
reflection and serious thinking. Of course,
Adrianna isn't satisfied with the glorious
Twenties and travels with Gil further back in
time to the “Belle Époque” of the
90s. If all of this sounds superficial and
dull rather than full of mystery and fun, it's
because it is. Allen has nothing meaningful to
say about the human condition, witness his
philosophy from Match Point that posits that
life is all about luck and little else.
His facile message here is that we should
appreciate our present circumstances rather than
long for something unattainable, (especially if
we live in the lap of luxury as do most of
Allen's characters). This is a worthy if banal
message but it is lost on Gil whose actions on
returning to present time negates whatever value
the message might have offered. Traveling to a
distant time should have a calming effect such
as in Rod Serling's Twilight Zone episode from
Season 1 called “A Stop at Willoughby” where a
train stops in 1888, allowing a harried
businessman to experience an illuminated world
filled with simplicity and serenity, qualities
nowhere to be found in Midnight in Paris, a film
about as magical as shopping at Walmart.
