Whether hating or feeling indifferent about Woody Allen, even the most casual movie fan can’t deny or marginalize his immense influence on his peers. Next to or just slightly below Martin Scorsese, he is America’s greatest living filmmaker, but has forever been hampered by a huge, self-inflicted detriment. Allen makes too many movies and repeats himself far too often.
The Greatest Appeal of His Best Works
Allen is never going to appeal to the masses, although “Midnight” is his most audience-friendly effort and, with over $151 million worldwide, the biggest box office hit of his entire career. As great as “Match Point” was, it was also a seedy murder mystery with a downbeat ending, not something mainstreamers usually crave.“Midnight” is a straight-forward comedy with a good deal of fantasy and is romantic as well but never in the traditional way. It’s a mash-up movie that takes its entire length to become completely clear with its message. Allen hadn’t been this original in a very long time.
Since he (wisely) stopped being his own leading man, Allen has pegged many worthy actors to perform as his mouthpiece, yet few have been as effective at it as Owen Wilson is here. In addition to not being the typical nebbish, neurotic Allen stand-in, Wilson is also not regarded by many as an actor with great range. He’s not the kind of guy that comes to mind when one imagines subtlety or finesse; he’s an actor that is called on when a party dude or a voice-over for an animated car is needed.
We meet successful screenwriter Gil (Wilson) and his gorgeous fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) at the beginning of what appears to be an extended Parisian vacation. Gil should be a very happy guy, but he’s not. He and Inez are traveling with her shallow, materialistic parents and both consider Gil to be a fanciful dreamer and not a great fit for their precious daughter. Inez is the apple of their eye (and one that hasn’t fallen far from the tree) and seems more interested in Gil’s Hollywood connections than in him.
A Great Cast
Even though his future in-laws, Inez, and her know-it-all college friend (Michael Sheen) are seriously depleting Gil’s mojo, he is able to recharge on a nightly basis by strolling around the city and soaking up its artsy good vibes and bohemian attitude.
Gil’s fascination with Paris is rooted in what he and others refer to as the “Golden Age” of literature, which started there in the 1920s. He would love nothing more than to ditch Hollywood for good, move to Paris, and write Important Novels.
During one of his midnight strolls, Gil meets the mysterious Adriana (Marion Cotillard), a woman who shares many of his views on art and writing but not his assertion that 1920s Paris was the hot bed of creativity. Her own “Golden Age” throws both Gil and the audience for a loop.
In a rare showing of restraint, the studio (Sony Pictures Classics), likely with considerable input from Allen, issued a trailer that went out of its way to not steal the movie’s thunder by revealing its major, mind-blowing plot twist.
As with all of his great films, Allen populates “Midnight” with a slew of top-notch famous and not-so-famous (at the time) supporting players who all lend the narrative unique flavor and understated gravitas. It’s no wonder actors around the world clamor to be in his movies, feel honored when Allen pegs them for a role, and very few of them ever turn him down.
The Last Hurrah
In the 11 years since “Midnight” was released, Allen has made eight more features and, sadly, all but one of them—the near-perfect “Blue Jasmine,” a clever reworking of “A Streetcar Named Desire” set in San Francisco—are out-and-out stinkers. The man has simply run out of ideas.On the upside, of the 50+ features Allen has made, 20 of them are excellent and another 12 or so are quite good. If filmmaking were baseball, Allen’s lifetime average would be well over .600 – a feat few filmmakers around that long could ever dream of achieving.
