mini-review: Midnight in Paris

A movie I had been waiting to see, and which is actually my first Woody Allen movie. I was attracted to it for two things: A) lush shots of Paris and B) a storyline that revolved around several of my big interests, Paris in the twenties, time travel, and fluffy adorable-ness. It did not disappoint on any of those grounds. It is just a sparkly bit of fluff, but that's just fine. I liked that the time-travel setup wasn't overworked or explained, it just happened. And of course, I was really excited to meet so many people I enjoy reading and reading about, even if it's mostly a lightning quick moment with them. A few quibbles. I think I get why Owen Wilson was chosen for the lead - he's so aggressively American (Californian) that he contrasts well to everyone in the past. But lord have mercy, listening to his nasal voice and drawl throughout the movie camethisclose to spoiling it for me because I found it so unpleasant. I wonder if they asked him to play up his usual manner of speaking for the movie? Also, his present-day girlfriend and her family were so unpleasant that it got me thinking about why they had ever gotten together in the first place. I could handwave most of that, though. Finally, what it made me realize is that I actually want a movie focused in on Hemingway and Fitzgerald and the rest of that crowd, the Murphys and Zelda and Picasso and the whole rowdy crew. Here, the past is mostly standing in for a lot of stuff (the point of the movie, really) but just like I wanted Julie and Julia to stay with Julia Child for the whole shebang, I wanted to stay in the twenties (and hell, a separate movie in the Belle Epoch would be fine with me too) and dig further into those people as main characters.