REVIEW: Midnight in Paris (A-)

(dir. Woody Allen, 2011)

There are many kinds of Woody Allen movies.  There are the good ones and the bad ones.  There are the tough-nosed Manhattan tales and his whimsical fantasies.  His dramas and his comedies.  For a man with such a specific style, he seems to blur such nuanced genres in line with his signature storytelling.  Unfortunately, he hasn't been doing much of that late.

Midnight in Paris is Woody's third European film, following London and Barcelona-based Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.  When Woody experiments with style, sometimes it can be thrilling (Interiors, Manhattan Murder Mystery) and sometimes it can be awful (The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Melinda and Melinda) but this fantasy tale so evoked the purity of the Allen form that it was a homerun from the beginning.

Set, obviously, in Paris, this is the story of a successful beat screenwriter (Owen Wilson) trying to fulfill his true potential as a novelist while vacationing with his snotty fiancee (Rachel McAdams, playing the role so well you hate her) and her equally snotty parents.  While there, Wilson falls head over heels for the City of Lights, finding that the purest pleasure from the city isn't material consumption, but rather just seeing the city.  Over and over he states how much wonderful Paris would have been in the 1920s.  It becomes very clear quickly that what McAdams and Wilson have isn't very meaty, which actually prompts Wilson's quest for fulfillment very believable.  One night, while walking the streets of Paris, the midnight clock rings, a 1920s car pulls up and transports him to the world of Paris in the 1920s where he meets artistic icons and one sultry muse.

It's been said that Wilson is the best Allen stand-in since Allen himself, and I tend to agree with that (after having to suffer the indignation of Josh Brolin and the atrocious Larry David), for Wilson understood and exacted the typical nebbish nature of the character Allen has penned.  Though, oddly, this successful Woody Allen film doesn't exactly have a standout performance.  In his career, Allen has been so prolific with writing great roles for actors and specifically actresses.  But in Midnight in Paris, a few bit characters really steal the show.  It's not the apt Wilson, the painfully truthful McAdams, or the perfect Parisian Marion Cottilard.  But rather, it's Alison Pill as Zelda Fitzgerald, Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway, and Adrien Brody as Salvador Dalí.

I dare anyone not to sit through Brody's sole scene without splitting a side; his ridiculous commitment to the absurdity of Dalí and his obsession with rhinoceroses is just magnificent.  Pill as the country-bumpkin turned booze maven is a delight, chewing her words and making Zelda just as we'd always imagined her.  Stoll, too, deserves some credit for not exactly having as a comedic a role as the aforementioned two, but still delivering a blisteringly true performance as Hemingway.

Overall, Allen's message in the film is a fine, clear one.  It's nice to see an Allen film not as focused on infidelity or sex as his previous films have been, and he's allowed his truly great story to shine.  It's a small, quiet tale told in fantastic measure, yet with such a profound and grounded conclusion.  I can say without hesitation, that this is Allen's best film in nearly 20 years.  Surely come Oscar time, this film will get at least attention for Allen's superb screenplay.  GRADE: A-

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Midnight in Paris trailer drops

Or as non-dorks call it, another Woody Allen film.  But this Woody Allen film is the one slated to open Cannes in a few month's time.  Sure, the last few Allen projects have been bumpier than not, what with Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona being the standouts amongst some of his career-worst efforts like Whatever Works and You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger.  But here's a toast to not judging a book by its cover and hoping that Allen has found his groove in Paris that he seemingly lost in London last summer.  Anyone else excited for Michael Sheen in a full-on beard?  Prime Minister say what?

This film's BEAUTIFUL poster after the cut ...

Black Sheep interviews Javier Bardem

A Biutiful Man

An interview with Javier Bardem

I don’t often get to interview Academy Award winning actors. If this is going to become a more common occurrence though, I should probably learn to mind my place a bit better. For instance, when Javier Bardem sat with me at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival to discuss his heartbreaking role in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s BIUTIFUL, we began our conversation by discussing Iñárritu’s impressions of the actor that led to him writing this role with Bardem in mind. He described Bardem as tough on the outside but soft on the inside, to which Bardem replied, “Like a melon, like Melon Brando!” comparing himself of course to the great method actor, Marlon Brando, but crossbred with the popular fruit.

Who knew Bardem was so cheeky? So I made a note of his witty little quip in my journal and he shot me a look. “Are you going to write that?” he asked, as if surprised that I was there for any other reason other than to take note of his every word. This is when, without thinking at all, I replied, “Oh, but I am,” and shot him a knowing look right back. “Let me see that!” he said, as he went for my notepad. Who also knew that Bardem could be so playful? And here he was, playing with me.

I was actually quite happy to see that Bardem still had the ability to laugh after playing in BIUTIFUL. In it, he plays Uxbal, a father of two who is estranged from his unstable wife, is involved with a number of illegal activities that exploit those who are even less fortunate than he is and, for reasons unbeknownst to him, he has the ability to communicate with the recently departed, if their souls still linger in unrest. As if that wasn’t enough to balance, he also learns at the on-set of the film that he has prostate cancer and not very long to live. Iñárritu’s first turn as both a writer and director is a haunting, evocative experience that leaves an indelible mark on all who see it, but what kind of scars did it leave on those who were in it?

“For me it was very important to learn to detach myself from what I was doing. Otherwise, you get lost in your own thing,” Bardem confides about his process. Isn’t that what everyone wants to know? How do you do it? How do you get so lost in this character and yet still manage to find your way back afterward? “Getting lost doesn’t help creativity at all. It is not about feeling what you’re doing; it is about pretending like you’re feeling what you’re doing. Some days are harder than others, of course.”

Bardem is no stranger to difficult roles. He has been perfecting the art of playing complex characters ever since he first appeared on Hollywood’s radar with an Oscar-nominated lead turn in Julian Schnabel’s BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, the first acting nomination in Oscar history for a Spanish actor (Bardem is from the Canary Islands). He went on to win the Oscar for his unforgettable supporting turn in the Coen Brothers’ NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (the first acting Oscar win for a Spanish actor). In fact, it wasn’t until playing in Woody Allen’s VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA that audiences actually got the chance to see Bardem loosen up a little. Incidentally, this is where he met his now wife and mother of his first child, and Academy Award winner herself, Penelope Cruz. The couple recently had their first child together, little Leo Encinas Cruz. A few days he was born, Bardem received his third Oscar nomination, as Best Actor for BIUTIFUL, a feat that many thought he would not be able to pull off.

Bardem is never to be underestimated though. The layers he brings to his performances are delicately nuanced and clearly leave lasting impressions. How does he find these convincing facets inside himself? “I think it’s on the page,” he explains. “When you do the wrong character, there is no way you can do it good. 50% of a good performance is the character that you are portraying. If he is well constructed, then you have 50% of a good performance already, just doing the lines. Then you have to add the other 50% on your own.”

Bardem is not only modest but apparently a realist as well, giving credit where credit is due. In this case, that would be for his director, Iñárritu. The two have been friends for almost ten years and have talked about working together all that time because they have a great respect for each other and each other’s work. (Iñárritu likens Bardem to a minotaur even!) “I am an admirer of his. You see all these amazing performances in his movies and you wonder what happens there,” Bardem proclaims. “With Alejandro, the material is so powerful that you really have to commit. It’s going to be a journey and you have to be aware of that.”

In recent years, Bardem seems to be allowing the journeys he takes to be a little less emotionally consuming, or at the very least he seems to be oscillating between more relaxed fare and films like BIUTIFUL. He appeared opposite Julia Roberts, a friend who helped campaign for his current Oscar nod, in Ryan Murphy’s summer hit, EAT PRAY LOVE, which he shot immediately after BIUTIFUL (“Take me to Bali!” he said when he put Uxbal to bed.) The contrast has allowed him to see the importance of incorporating both the light and the dark into his life. “As much as you have to bring some seriousness to a comedy set, you have to bring some laughter to a drama like BIUTIFUL. It is the balance that always makes things more enjoyable.”

This balance has Bardem attached to a number of upcoming projects, as varied as a new Terrence Malick film and a potential villain role in the next James Bond movie. Either way, Bardem will bring his almost signature brand of intensity to any project he takes on, just as long as he doesn’t have to die this time. “My mother doesn’t like that very much. She always asks, ‘Are you dying in this one?’”

Even if he does, BIUTIFUL teaches us that death is not an ending. It is just the beginning of a long, hard road ahead. I'm not sure if that is meant to be uplifting but if anyone can find the hope in that, it will be Bardem.