By Seif Elmashad Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Marion Cotillard
Directed by: Woody Allen
When going to watch a Woody Allen movie, what do you expect? A romantic comedy with a neurotic leading character, arguably representing Allen's own neuroticism, with a normal life like that of an average person, however with a peculiar yet comic way of facing it.
But this isn't the case in this movie. With the Parisian setting concept of time travel, Allen still manages to create the same neurotic leading character but with a twist in the day to day events he faces.
When the soon to be wed couple, Gil (Wilson) and Inez (McAdams) decides to join Inez's parents during their business trip in Paris. They come to realize that their relationship might end due to the intellectual gap between them, especially when it comes to their takes on life and their different sentiments towards Paris. Besides Gil's affection towards this city to the point of thinking of moving there, Gil is faced by a surprise. At midnight, he shifts back into the surreal world of Paris in the 1920's where he's joined by great writers and artists like Zelda Fitzgerald, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Earnest Hemmingway and last but not least, Pablo Picasso.
The movie was brilliantly executed by Allen who's known for his unique and peculiar style of directing. The leading characters were well chosen and they had an unexplainable natural chemistry between them. Owen Wilson excels as the author who has a mildly socialist perspective on life and is looking for inspiration to write his debut novel. On the other hand, McAdams also stands out as Wilson's fiancée who has a capitalistic pretentious background. The rest of the excelled in their interaction with Wilson's character, Gil, to the point that you would think that they are people you could actually run into on a daily basis.
The script was well written and did a great job in depicting the notion of nostalgia and how we long to return to simpler times. Even though the dialogue is scripted, one could feel that it was improvised due to the actors' ability to perform their roles effortlessly and in a spontaneous way.
So if you are looking for a not-so-cliché romantic comedy with a Parisian twist, I highly recommend this movie for all the nostalgic romantics out there.
Where were the capitalistic tendencies in her character? I get snobby, pretentious, unconcerned with other people. but that isnt what capitalism is. Forgive me for turning this into a political discussion but I think you are drawing some unfair conclusions based on your own bias.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise great review though