Café Society takes place in the 1930s. Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg) arrives in Hollywood where his uncle (Steve Carrell) works as a big-shot agent. Bobby is trying to escape his mundane existence back in New York, seeking glamour and fortune in Los Angeles. There he falls in love with Vonnie (Kristen Stewart), his uncle’s secretary. Later on, Bobby is back in New York, and his new Hollywood connections help him turn his gangster brother’s nightclub into the hottest spot in town.
Café Society isn’t really telling much of a story. There are certainly events taking place, but it is more intent with capturing a feeling more than delivering a plot. The feeling, in this case, is wondering what could have been. The film is about finding success and having everything one should want, and still thinking about that one time when things could have gone differently. The film has moments of loveliness, but it all feels pretty insubstantial when all is said and done. It’s seductive but ultimately empty nostalgia, propped up by an excellent production.
Woody Allen offers strains of melancholy in his romantic vision of the 1930s. It’s hard not to see this as a deeply personal picture. His voice comes through in this picture much more than any of his other recent works, and that’s not just because he’s actually also serving as narrator. One gets the sense that the filmmaker at 80, successful and revered yet also besieged by all manner of allegations, is pining for days past, of a time when he was young and the world was his oyster. The film depicts a world of high society that is all at once enchanting and dreadfully empty. These people are all still looking for the one thing that really makes them feel alive.
This film keeps going back to its romance. It’s really all just about this one boy and this one girl who meet and fall in love. As young people in Hollywood, they keep talking about how fake everything is, how they want to be different from everyone else. But even they can’t quite follow their hearts. Deep down, given a chance to live the kind of life of comfort and glamour of the people that they often make fun of, they might still jump at it. And in their lives of affluence, they are probably not unhappy. But that isn’t quite happiness, either.
It’s sweet, but the film struggles with its own melancholy. The writing isn’t able to turn these fond remembrances into something truly substantial, something that might actually make its feeling palpable. It’s funny to an extent, but only so much. It’s sad, but never really quite sad enough. If nothing else, this is one of Woody Allen’s most beautifully shot films. And the acting never fails. Jesse Eisenberg is probably the best Woody Allen surrogate at this point, and he shares a lot of chemistry with Kristen Stewart. The writing doesn’t always sell their romance, but there is an easy familiarity between the actors that makes up for those deficiencies.
Café Society is a mere trifle of a film. It tries to touch on something deeper and sadder, but it doesn’t quite seem to have the tools to do that exactly. But every now and then it hits the right notes: the camera landing in exactly the right place, the lighting utterly beautiful, and two actors delivering comedic lines that convey ideas that go beyond the laughs. It isn’t enough to give the film real substance, but it is an enchanting distraction nonetheless.
My Rating:
