Banana Scoop

The only Woody Allen movie I have ever seen before this was Antz.  As a film enthusiast, one could label that as embarrassing or a sham.  One thing I’ve been recently trying to do is to follow every recommendation I get, so when a good friend recommended this movie to me, there wasn’t much I could do.  And being a Woody Allen amateur, I didn’t actually know where it would go because I didn’t know his style, trademarks, or storylines.  So there I sat, hesitant about the hour and half before me, expecting some sort of romantic comedy with some minor twist of some sort.  But instead, I was taken on a journey I will never forget, with quite possibly might be one of the best movies of the year.  And that being said, it is now my life goal to watch as many Woody Allen movies as I can if they are anything close to this one.

Gil (Owen Wilson) is a Hollywood script writer and an aspiring novelist who has taken a vacation to Paris with his fiance Inez (Rachel McAdams).  The two seemingly disagree with what they consider to be romantic and ideal and their tension is further escalated when Inez’s friends are seemingly driving them apart.  On one particular night, when Inez and her friends want to go dancing, the romantic Gil would rather take to the streets of Paris at night and experience the culture.  As he parades the streets alone, he stumbles on a world between dream and reality where it’s as though he’s living in the 1920’s among the world’s leaders in art, literature, and culture.  It’s through this experience that Gil slowly finds out who he is and what he wants in life.

First thing I must say is that the way Allen portrays Paris is simply wonderful.  In the beginning of the movie, there is a five minute montage of the highlights of Paris that are simply breathtaking when accompanied by a beautiful instrumental track that really encapsulates the essence of Paris.  I haven’t felt this much culture about Paris since Ratatouille.  And throughout the film, Allen really plays off of the culture of Paris that makes me want to book a flight as soon as I can afford one.  And then there’s the music!   I’m not much of a music major nor can I identify different types or genre’s of music, but it’s very easy to identify the background instrumentals and song choices that just encaptures Paris as well as it did.  The only other film I can remember that’s taken me back culturally as this movie did was Slumdog Millionaire.  Bravo Woody Allen, bravo.

As for the story itself, in terms of Romantic Comedy, I quite honestly haven’t seen one this original since (500) Days of Summer or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  It was only a couple of days ago when I was reviewing Crazy, Stupid, Love did I say that romantic comedies need to break barriers and be genuinely new.  I didn’t even realize this was a romantic comedy until IMDB classified it that way.  The movie’s story simply transcends anything I’ve ever seen before with it’s originality and wit.  There was absolutely never a dull moment and I wanted the movie to just keep going and going and going.  Woody Allen wrote and directed it himself and that just speaks volumes about how talented he is, talented enough for me to take notice and want to check out his entire career.

I’m seemingly going on and on about how great the story is and I’ve told you so little about it.  The reason for this is because I want for you to discover the magic itself, and with me telling you what the story is about will take away from the impact it may have on you.  I’ve already told you too much about some of it being set in the 1920’s.  I will say that the line of supporting cast is phenomenal.  One of the most difficult aspects of this film is that it requires you to be VERY knowledgeable in 1920’s culture.  You must be familiar with names like Picasso, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein, among others to get the maximum delight and magnitude of some of the film’s strong points.  I myself, felt inadequate when I had to pause the film to wikipedia a couple of figures that seemed prominent.  I would imagine one who is cultured in this time would simply have a field day in the portrayals of some of these figures.  Even I consider myself uncultured and I was just delighted to see, for example, Adrien Brody play a very surreal Salvador Dali.

There’s something magical about this movie.  I can continue to gush over this again and again.  Hands down this could possibly be one of my favorite movies of the year.  So please, when I tell you to go watch this, you must heed my word.  And when you do, all I can say is be prepared to be taken a journey that will make you want to go to 1920’s yourself to see what all the hullabaloo is about.

5/5 Stars