Friday, March 9, 2012

Movie Review: Midnight in Paris



After watching and reviewing Sherlock together, Kailana (of The Written World) and I decided we had to do that again! This time, we choose a movie and actually watched it together in real time... over Twitter! I KNEW that Twitter was good for something! How fun is that? Very fun I tell you! We are going to do it again sometime, and you know, you can join us if you want!

So the movie we watched was Midnight in Paris. It was up for some Academy Awards, but I'm not sure it ended up winning anything. Anyway, I'd never heard of it until Kailana suggested it, and then seeing it talked about during the Oscars. But when she proposed for us to watch it, she said that bookish people seem to really love it.

Well, now I can see why that is! What an awesome bookish sort of movie this is!

But first some info:

Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, Kathy Bates
Genre: according to IMDB... comedy, fantasy and romance
Rating: PG13
MY Rating: Thumbs up!


Basically there's this guy who's a struggling writer. He goes with his fiance on a trip to Paris, along with her parents. She is going off doing all kinds of things with them, not really worrying about what he'd like to do, like wander the streets of Paris at midnight or take walks in the rain. And then there's his inner writer that longs for the good old days of the 20s. And suddenly (suspend your disbelief here!) he ends up in the 20s! And he goes to this party and there's the Fitzgeralds! And Hemingway! And Cole Porter! Later on he meets other cool and interesting people, and.... he falls in love. 


I loved the quietness of this movie. It's very basic and calm. Lots of good music and cool costumes (Downton Abbey style!) and so many characters from the literary and artistic world. The coloring was weird though. Very yellow. I think they were trying to give it a very warm feeling, but it was a bit overdone. Anyway, it made me want to go to Paris... and re-read The Great Gatsby to see if I "get it" the second go around.

Kailana's Questions to me:

What did you think of the characters and the casting choices?

Loved it! I've always liked Owen Wilson, he has a cool voice. But the people they got for the literary characters were spot on for me. Especially Hemingway. Awesome! And Adrien Brody for Salvador Dali... even though I don't really know much about Dali, he seemed perfect! Oh Zelda Fitzgerald of course, she was also perfect.

What were your thoughts on the music? 

I LOVED it! It reminded me a lot of the music from Chocolat, but when I looked it up it is NOT the same composer. Anyway, both the soundtrack, and the songs from the time period were awesome. Ragtime and jazz and Cole Porter. It was great. Here's some examples, because you can find anything on YouTube you know:




What was your favourite part of the movie?

I enjoyed it when Gil, our fearless hero, finally told Inez (his fiance) off! That was satisfying! But I think my very favorite was when he realized he was in the presence of Fitzgerald, and then later on Hemingway. His reaction is perfect!


Bottom line: I loved it!


Have you seen it? What did you think?


Here's the trailer:




Very fun to watch this together! We plan to do it again... maybe with the movie The Tree of Life.  Join us?



15 comments:

  1. I loved this movie, too. My mom and I watched it together and both had the same thought - that seeing this moving after reading The Paris Wife by Paula McLain enhanced the movie experience.
    Have you read The Paris Wife yet?

    My favorite scenes were from the 20s - how I wish I lived during that time!

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    1. Kristin: I haven't read that one yet, but it sounds great!

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  2. Oh this looks fantastic! I've never seen the preview. I actually thought it was Robert Redford in the first picture lol. I'll be looking for this one =) Thanks!

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    1. Kristina: I can see how you would think that! Funny.

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  3. I loved this film! It was seriously an English major's dream come true.

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  4. Love it. Loved it, loved it, loved it.

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  5. Glad you enjoyed the movie!

    For an alternate review: http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/2011/07/challenge-paris-in-july.html

    I liked the plot, and all the old time Paris characters, but I didn't like Owen, or his fiance, or her family. I think I just don't like Woody Allen movies. I couldn't believe it was nominated for so many Oscars.

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    1. Raidergirl: I am not usually a very big Woody Allen fan either. I did like the Owen character though, but I totally agree with you on his fiance and her parents. Blech.

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  6. I am just getting my post up now. Sorry! My day got away from me. Thanks for watching it with me!!

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  7. This is one of those movies that I kept wondering, 'what the heck is that'. This is the first time I've even learned what it was about. Now I'll have to watch it.

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  8. Owen Wilson was perfectly cast as the character that 20 years ago would have been played by Woody himself (he had the cadence of Woody down perfectly, and yet it still sounded natural to what we expect from Owen). The music was great, the costumes were great, and I loved, loved the ending!

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  9. My family has been telling me for months that I must see this movie, because one of my favorite books of all time is A MOVEABLE FEAST, by Ernest Hemingway, which apparently covers some of the same material. Thank you for this in-depth post about it. It's made me want to see it even more.

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  10. This was such a fun movie! I'm usually not a huge fan of Owen Wilson, but he was perfect in this.

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  11. And do you like the soundtrack of Midnight in Paris?

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