Review of Midnight in Paris (2011) by Greg L — 28 Nov 2012
It's a sign of the sad depths to which Woody Allen's career has fallen that this slightly-better-than mediocre film has been hailed as his best work in years. The premise is amusing, if slight and under-realized by the script, which begins as an interesting examination of history's tendency to file down the past from a complex world inherited by three-dimensional human beings into a simple narrative inhabited by stock characters before reverting to a typically Allenesque and far less intriguing dramatization of the romantic disappointments of neurotic upper class New York liberals.
But Owen Wilson is woefully miscast as a wannabe novelist obsessed with the Lost Generation era, and the gifted Rachel McAdams is utterly wasted in a one-note role as his shrill, unlikable fiancee. And it is not not half as funny or insightful as it wants to be.
It's great that Allen has made an okay movie instead of an awful one, but hardly cause for celebration.
This review of Midnight in Paris (2011) was written by Greg L on 28 Nov 2012.
Midnight in Paris has generally received very positive reviews.
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