Travel Monday/Movie Tuesday

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging as much, lately, is because I've actually been spending some time with Christopher. He finished the last of the classes he was taking at the end of July, and after finishing a round of freelancing, I kind of opted to let it slide for a little bit. The slide, however - for better or worse - is coming to an end this week, so I'll be back to barricading myself in the basement with my laptop again coming later this week...

In the meantime, though, Christopher and I have done things like going out to dinner with friends - in the middle of the week - and going out to one of our favorite pizza joints on a Friday night (which is usually our "go home and crash after work" night). And, on Saturday in the late afternoon, we even did the almost-unthinkable and went to an actual movie. Together.

We'd been getting told to go see the movie for a while. And, well, as much as I believe my friends when they tell me I'll like a movie, I'm always a little leery about seeing movies people tell me I'll love. I tend to get my hopes up too high, and then I get let down. Add in the fact that it was a Woody Allen movie that everyone was pointing us toward. AND the fact that it's set in Paris - so everyone was sure I'd love it - and I was really nervous.

But, throwing caution to the wind and hoping for the best, on Saturday afternoon Christopher and I found ourselves headed out to see "Midnight in Paris."

It doesn't have Woody Allen in it, but the male lead is a disenchanted Hollywood screenwriter played by Owen Wilson - who has the Woody Allen whine down pretty well (for better or worse). He's in Paris with his fiancee and her parents for a pre-wedding trip, and they just happen upon an old professor of hers whom she has a crush on. And, well, we find that maybe Owen is really more in love with Paris than he is with his fiancee.

For the record, I almost said that Wilson plays "the main character," but that would have been wrong. We'd been told that the opening sequence is kind of a "love note" to Paris. And it is a very nice montage of places throughout the city. Parks and buildings and avenues and all sorts of great things - very travelogue-y, but very pretty. And, since the movie all takes place there, the love lingers.

So, anyway, Owen's character is in love with the idea of 1920s Paris, and - magically - finds himself there, where he's swept up in the wake of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and an amazing pantheon of artists and writers. And one especially lovely young woman played by Marion Cotillard (who is, frankly, always especially lovely).

It is a movie about dreams and realities. About love and about passion - two very different things. And, yes, it's a movie about Paris. (Oh, and to prove just how French the movie is, it actually has Carla Bruni - yes, THE Carla Bruni - in it in a really amazing little role.)

Friends of mine who know me well may be surprised to know that I did not shed any tears at the end of the movie. I did, however, a couple of times in the middle of the movie while our "hero" and "heroine" were walking the streets of the city. There was a moment (maybe two), somewhere in there, which felt so quintessentially Parisian that I just couldn't help myself and I found myself longing to be there again.

By the time the movie was over, Christopher and I were both talking about wanting to go back to Paris. But... ah... that danged "dreams versus realities" thing stepped in. Again.

Overall rating: A. Sitting here trying to find things that are wrong with it, I'm currently unable to. But even so it's not an A+, because... well... it's just not. (See it, and I think you'll understand what I mean.)