Corey Stoll was amazing. He's awfully engaging always, but this is as good as he's been, so a perfect Hemmingway. Sometimes Owen Wilson is as good as he's ever been, and sometimes just as good as I've seen any acting; if you want someone to be shocked by the goings on, with not a word, he's your man.
And... that's about it. Everyone else is over the top, a caricature, so that Kurt Fuller and Michael Sheen are just insufferable jerks. I mean it. They aren't annoying to Owen Wilson but to me. No one is this much of an egocentric jerk, with no one calling him on not letting anyone else get a word in edgewise. Owen Wilson isn't a child, or a factory worker, so why can't he also be well read since he's a fan of Paris and enough of a successful writer that he can consider buying houses in Malibu.
Let me stick with that for a moment: there's no need to have everyone else treat Owen Wilson like this. He is enough of the neurotic that this would have worked with Michael Sheen treating him as a would-be equal, trying to persuade him that his one writing career could translate into another. There is even a scene talking of the fiancee's family going to a movie and... they leave it there, instead of discussing the value of entertainment and that he's doing good work, that even in Paris people see movies and want to be entertained. It could have provided a nice mirror to the '20s scenes, more driven that - as I like to see this - the biggest change in his time travel deal is to Owen Wilson, that he's got the confidence.
Okay, back to things that annoy me: and then there are the women. Woody Allen is getting worse if anything, even Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein is underwritten at best, there to emasculate and embarrass the men to drive the story at worse.
But most of all it is so badly put together. It is edited and mostly filmed like a 21st century comedy? It is all too bright, too smooth, too centered, and juuuust below the eyeline.
I'd like this, all in all, if anyone but Woody Allen had made it. One more rewrite to tighten it all up, and some legit photography that carries on the opening montage.
And... that's about it. Everyone else is over the top, a caricature, so that Kurt Fuller and Michael Sheen are just insufferable jerks. I mean it. They aren't annoying to Owen Wilson but to me. No one is this much of an egocentric jerk, with no one calling him on not letting anyone else get a word in edgewise. Owen Wilson isn't a child, or a factory worker, so why can't he also be well read since he's a fan of Paris and enough of a successful writer that he can consider buying houses in Malibu.
Let me stick with that for a moment: there's no need to have everyone else treat Owen Wilson like this. He is enough of the neurotic that this would have worked with Michael Sheen treating him as a would-be equal, trying to persuade him that his one writing career could translate into another. There is even a scene talking of the fiancee's family going to a movie and... they leave it there, instead of discussing the value of entertainment and that he's doing good work, that even in Paris people see movies and want to be entertained. It could have provided a nice mirror to the '20s scenes, more driven that - as I like to see this - the biggest change in his time travel deal is to Owen Wilson, that he's got the confidence.
Okay, back to things that annoy me: and then there are the women. Woody Allen is getting worse if anything, even Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein is underwritten at best, there to emasculate and embarrass the men to drive the story at worse.
But most of all it is so badly put together. It is edited and mostly filmed like a 21st century comedy? It is all too bright, too smooth, too centered, and juuuust below the eyeline.
I'd like this, all in all, if anyone but Woody Allen had made it. One more rewrite to tighten it all up, and some legit photography that carries on the opening montage.
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