The not-so surprising: Rachel McAdams is the worst thing about the film.
Surprising: Owen Wilson doesn't play Owen Wilson, and the film benefits massively from this.
The film's message is straightforward but the way it delivers it makes it more intriguing but also really insightful. Marion Cotillard is stunning (as per usual) and Alison Pill pops up with her weird head again, but there's not much else to say. This is only my second Woody Allen film, though I don't know if it's a typical Allen film, so can't really comment on that. It's a nice film, it doesn't force anything upon you and it leaves you thinking.
The film's moral is that everyone is basically looking for an escape from their busy and crappy lives. They often seek a time allegedly better than their own, but the reality is that there was no real Golden era. Hindsight paves the streets of history with Golds, as if there was any really magical era or decade or particular revolution, but the truth of the matter is that what makes anything special is how you choose to live your life.
Sure, it's corny as hell, and the film's ending shoves that down your throat, but for a Woody Allen film, it's nowhere as tongue-in-cheek as it should be.
7/10
2 comments:
fantastic poster, probably one of the best I've seen in quite some time. Question. Do you find Owen Wilson funny?
Owen Wilson is one of the personifications of 'brainless US comedy' for me. I think he is a terrible comedy, someone you can't empathise with and someone whose awful acting means I will never enjoy any slapstick affair he's a part of.
However, here, he's made to be the sane protagonist, whose search for idealistic utopia mirrors the audience's, and thus makes him human.
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