Midnight in Paris

If it is Woody Allen then it has to have the Oscars against it. Especialy in the category of Original Screenplay. He has received 15 nominations for Original Screeplay to date!!! And if you haven’t seen Woody Allen movies you would be tempted to now. If you have, then you would not be surprised with this fact. The capability to create a story line and then pepper it with humour that can best be described as acidic is an art that the 77 year old has probably mastered better than anyone else. Lets face it. There cannot be a badly written Woody Allen movie. It is possible that people may not understand it because thanks to the layers that Woody has put in it but it just cannot be bad. I am a huge fan and Midnight in Paris has done nothing to harm my position.

The other nominations have been in the categories of Direction, Art Direction and Motion Picture of the year. I also think that Owen Wilson has been overlooked for the acting Oscar simply because he has this slapstick non serious image about himself and not because he hasn’t acted well in this one. Somehow I think Owen Wilson is cut out perfectly for the Woody Allen type of care a damn humour. The nonchalance that he gets to the screen is just apt for playing the part of a writer who is not cutting much ice in his relationship with a supremely rich girl whose family doesn’t approve the relationship one bit. And it gets even more convincing when he starts imagining that at the stroke of every midnight, he gets picked up by a vintage Peugeot and meets all his idols of the early 1900s. An era that he is fascinated with and wants to be back in.

Woody Allen has a knack of surprising most people with his casting. And for the first time I see Rachel McAdams in a role that is quite unlike her. One in which audiences would resent her and not look at her as the girl next door that she always plays. And she essays her role with ease. Which is even more surprising. Proving to us inadvertently I presume that there is a lot of serious acting acumen that hasn’t gone on display yet.

I don’t need to comment on the capabilities of the likes of Kathy Bates (Gertrude Stein) or Marrion Cotillard (Adriana) who really have nothing to prove to anyone of us lowly mortals anymore. And the support cast in any Woody Allen movie is always superb. Somehow I think all of these guys just get into a groove that is most natural to them and were waiting for Woody to actually show it to them that they are capable of performing this way. Woody himself doesn’t play a role in this one and the eccentricities are conspicuously missing. But he more than makes up with his humour. Deservedly in the top 10 movies of the year. Watch it. 8 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi853581081/