Review: Café Society
The heart doesn't always get what it wants in Woody Allen's Café Society, which contains a melancholic heart within its confectionary packaging.
Allen himself narrates the tale of one Bronx-born Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg), newly arrived and hoping to try his luck in 1930s Hollywood. Taken under the wing of his Uncle Phil (Steve Carell), a hotshot agent who's constantly wheeling and dealing whether it be in his oak-walled and Art Deco-adorned Beverly Hills office or during the any number of swanky parties thrown at his seaside mansion, Bobby is both overwhelmed and suspicious of this glamorous world where industry talk, name-dropping and catty backstabbing are as natural as breathing oxygen. Ambivalent though this New Yorker may be, he's found a reason to stay and the reason is named Vonnie (Kristen Stewart).
Vonnie is Phil's young assistant whom he's tasked to show Bobby around town. Bobby is instantly enchanted and why not? Stewart has never been more beautiful and her delicate and expressive performance is surely her best to date. Warm and level-headed, her Vonnie remains a bit of a country girl at heart. "I think I'd be happier being life-sized," she remarks as she takes Bobby on a tour of movie star houses and discuss those larger-than-life figures on the silver screen. Instead of going to the Brown Derby, where the intent is to see and be seen, she brings Bobby to a Spanish-style joint dominated by a mural of Mexican street life. There's hardly anyone in the place and that suits Bobby just fine - all he wants is to luxuriate in the pleasure of her company.
Cupid is a mischievous matchmaker. It turns out that Vonnie has been conducting an affair with Phil, who keeps promising to leave his wife though he can never seem to follow through. Vonnie herself is torn between the dynamic and powerful Phil and the sweet and adoring Bobby. Much bittersweet humour is derived from Phil confiding his romantic troubles to Bobby, who obliviously advises his own rival to follow his heart. Even better is a scene where Phil confronts Vonnie, now working as a coat-check girl, over her intentions to marry Bobby and move to New York. Carell proves himself the master of the brave face, desperately trying to convince Vonnie to reconsider her decision whilst feigning good cheer to all who pass. It's hard to sort out your private life when everyone in town knows you.
Allen draws from the same narrative palette that has coloured many of his films, but there's a freshness and vibrancy in Café Society, a whimsicality that is wonderfully mixed with the melancholy that makes this a minor but memorable masterpiece. This is also undoubtedly one of Allen's most gorgeous works and that's due in large part to excellent contributions by production designer Santo Loquasto, costume designer Suzy Benzinger and, most especially, legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro who crafts compositions so lucid and lustrous that one feels spellbound.
Yearning is the underlying theme here. What's intriguing is how the yearning for something else doesn't necessarily stem from dissatisfaction. Phil is pained by his situation because he doesn't want to leave his wife (the way Carell barks how good a woman his wife is to Eisenberg is an amusing bit of aggression). Vonnie loves Bobby, but she also genuinely loves Phil. Bobby mends his broken heart with Veronica (Blake Lively, impossibly slinky), but wonders if he might nickname her "Vonnie." Even when the characters find their happy endings, they're still dreaming of what might have been and the final shot of Vonnie and Bobby, together but apart, pierces with poignancy.
Café Society
Directed by: Woody Allen
Written by: Woody Allen
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell, Jeannie Berlin, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Paul Schneider, Corey Stoll, Ken Stott, Anna Camp, Stephen Kunken, Sari Lennick, Sheryl Lee
