Midnight in Paris
Woody Allen's latest comedy is as light and sweet as...I don't know...zinfandel.
Ok, maybe that's not the most ideal analogy, but seriously, Midnight in Paris is a real treat of a film. It's funny, feel-good, and filled with amusing celebrity cameos. Owen Wilson plays Gil Pender--a Hollywood screenwriter who dreams of writing a novel instead of churning out awful scripts for a paycheck. His selfish, label-conscious fiance, Inez (Rachel McAdams), has plans for the two of them to move to Malibu and live a life of crass luxury. When the two vacation in Paris, Gil finds himself romanticizing the City of Lights during the Jazz Age and thinking about how life would have been so much better and exciting if he had just been born 90 years earlier. One night, as Gil walks the streets of Paris, alone and tipsy, a 1920's style car pulls up and some raucous partygoers beckon him inside. Like Cinderella's pumpkin, this car takes Gil to a party where he meets...Ernest Hemingway...and Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald...and there's Cole Porter at the piano! Gil gets the chance to live his fantasy--and even have Gertrude Stein give him tips on his novel. But when Gil meets a beautiful woman (Marion Cotillard) and begins to fall for her, will he decide to leave the present and live in the past for good?
Allen seems to have made two types of movies in the past couple decades: awful comedies (Scoop, Whatever Works) and good dramas (Match Point, Vicky Christina Barcelona). Midnight in Paris manages to hit the sweet spot between two extremes: it is a light, breezy comedy that is actually touching with a nice, unforced lesson at its center. With cameos by Adrien Brody as Salvador Dali and Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein (among many others), the movie will be full of surprises for literary viewers; and the light sarcasm will remind Allen fans of his earlier "funny" movies, such as Bananas and Sleeper. Pretty much a win-win for everyone.
4 out of 5 stars
***
My Brilliant Career
Anyone looking for a good flick with feminist bona fides will enjoy My Brilliant Career. Judy Davis plays Sybylla Melvyn, a young woman in Australia at the turn of the 20th century. Sybylla dreams of having a career in art: literature...opera...she can't decide! However, her impoverished family has other plans. They encourage her to find a wealthy suitor and get married...or to prepare for a life of drudgery as a governess. Sybylla has no qualms about turning down the proposal of a boring gentleman who tells Syb, "You can't do better than me!", but when she falls in love with a rich man (Sam Neil) who cares deeply for her and respects her fun and curious nature, the decision between marriage and career is much more difficult.
This movie reminded me that there was a time not that long ago when women really did have to choose between marriage and a life of independence. Marriage nearly always meant children--lots of them--and far less time to focus on one's own interests and ambitions. Although the film doesn't dwell on sex, it makes you realize how truly revolutionary the Pill (and other forms of birth control) really were for women's lives. And although we certainly don't live in a gender equal paradise nowadays, My Brilliant Career made me realize how lucky I am to be able to have marriage, a career, or both, if I so choose.
4 out of 5 stars
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