You wake up in a moving train. Your name is Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal). Yet, the girl next to you (Michelle Monaghan) calls you a different name and continues a conversation you can’t understand. You don’t know how you got there. Random people pass by, you try to figure out whats going on. You see reflection of yourself in the mirror, and its not the face you are familiar with. You start freaking out, thinking you are in a dream or possibly gone mad, but then BOOM! the train explodes. And you wake up trapped in a some kind of capsule and being greeted by not so friendly Captain Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) from the soulless LCD monitor. You fight for the truth and you find out that you have been on a secret government mission. The train “dream” you just had was memories of one of the passengers on the train. There has been a terrorist attack on the train and you are assigned to relive the last 8 minutes of memories of that passenger and find whoever planted the bomb and prevent his next attack. And you will have to relive this “dream” unless you complete your objective.

Jake Gyllenhaal does a good job portraying character stuck with seemingly unsolvable problem. His challenge includes gradual change from “WTF?!” state into “I’m gonna solve this” state, which he achieves with great performance. He is fully engaged. This is very important for this role. I also enjoyed the character of Michelle Monaghan. I really loved the decision of not using super-sexy actress, but instead someone cute and more believable to be riding the train and having interaction with main character. And I finally witnessed Vera Farmiga, which I personally dislike as an actress, in a role that actually gives her a positive side I could relate to. She needs more roles like this.

Film has been directed by Duncan Jones, whose previous film “Moon” I found really interesting and innovative. He uses fast cuts and edits to tell us the story, and yet these edits don’t intercept with the storytelling. Usually, in this situation you will find shaky camera and overdone hyperactivity perception. Very fortunately, I should say, Jones manages to keep these technical tricks that create uneasiness and engagement, at hand, not letting it overflow and ruin the picture. In return, all these creates a proper environment where you just sit and enjoy whatever happens on the screen.

Unfortunately, THAT I can’t say about the story. Scientific part remains mostly unexplained, I guess, because screenwriters themselves couldn’t make their mind how exactly this stuff suppose to work. So they just throw in into the air for us to swallow and just live with that. I did enjoy some random twists throughout the plot, they did play very well, but, I’ll be damned if some of the stuff did make sense without going deep into science fiction realm and dealing with a suspense of disbelief. Nevertheless, I did feel most of the viewers will not be bugged about it much, so I just closed my eyes on the matter and just enjoyed the movie.

7/10

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It took me 2 days actually to sit down and write the lines you are going to read now. The reason behind this is I couldn’t actually imagine how exactly I should approach it. Its a very interesting movie with an interesting, lets say “adventure” happening right in between. Telling that adventure is spoiling the movie, not telling it is actually omitting a great deal of interesting characters, storylines, plots, and etc. So after contemplating all this time I decided to go with second scenario.

Paris… A beautiful, magical, irreplaceable, incredible place where all  the interesting stuff has happened and still happens. So thinks young Californian writer Gil (Owen Wilson). He is visiting the capital of France with his fiancee and future in-laws. This is a dream come true for him. Seeing the places where his heroes – Monet, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso, Dali – have lived and created their most amazing masterpieces. For Gil, Paris in the beginning of 20th century has been the most amazing place in the world. And he is hoping to get some inspiration for his new book. Unfortunately, his future wife is not so ecstatic about all the past, and she prefers to enjoy all the fancy of the present, in the company of her friends, whom Gil finds repulsive. So one day he leaves his fiancee with her friends and goes wandering the streets of Paris. And then he, by chance, stumbles upon a magical adventure, of which he has never dreamed before. Indeed, midnight in Paris is enchanting…

Essentially, the film is a love letter to Paris from Woody Allen. Its perfectly made. The scenes are beautifully lit and colored, the framing is nice. I do really like the usage of long takes, and this movies doesn’t lack them. It starts by showing a very beautiful montage of the city, I have never been to. Doesn’t make me nostalgic or doesn’t tingle my heart very much, and yet I really felt what the director wanted to show by this actual video clip. It doesn’t matter if I hate everything French (and, well, yeah I kinda do), this movie manages to bring all the glory, all the pride, all the beauty, all the magic of this eternal city. I’m sure I will some day visit Paris (I promised my wife I will take her there some day) and then I’m going to revisit this movie, and I’m sure I will have totally different feelings about it.

Nevertheless, the plot itself is very interesting. Without going into much detail, its not your cliche romance movie, and it doesn’t try to be. It has its own course and it travels there on its own pace. Sometimes you wonder the reaction of the main hero in certain moment, and then you try to put yourself in that situation and understand that maybe you would have acted the same way. The acting is very good. I’m not a great fan of Owen Wilson, and don’t consider him as a good actor, but I believe Allen managed to pull out of him EVERYTHING that the role of Gil should be. And that’s remarkable.

Supporting cast is probably one of the best this year. Katy Bates brings an interesting touch to her role. Adrien Brody plays his part very nice, and I really smiled when I saw him on screen. Indeed, I can’t imagine anyone playing THAT role better. Michael Sheen plays a very convincing “pseudo-intellectual”. The only role I didn’t connect to was the one of Marion Cotillard. She seemed shallow.

The other thing I didn’t like was the revelation, the message of the movie. I don’t know if it was artistic inability of Owen Wilson, or directorial eccentricity of Woody Allen, but it seemed that this message was delivered too ordinarily, unlike the whole movie itself.

Overall, I did enjoy the movie. For my inner romantic it was a long awaited drink, after long drought. One of the best this lackluster year in cinema. I would really recommend it to watch it on one quiet night with a glass of wine in your hand and cracking fire in the fireplace. I’m giving it 8/10.

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