The movie Jennifer Lawrence calls “perfection”
Rises don’t come much more meteoric than the one experienced by Jennifer Lawrence, who accomplished more before turning 30 than many actors get to experience in their entire careers.
In addition to leading two multi-billion dollar franchises through her work as Mystique in X-Men and The Hunger Games‘ Katniss Everdeen, Lawrence made the balancing act between critical acclaim and commercial success look as close to effortless as it gets.
An Academy Award winner for ‘Best Actress’ in Silver Linings Playbook, it marked just one of four nominations she’d secured by the age of 26, to go along with four Critics’ Choice Movie Awards and three Golden Globes to firmly establish her as one of her generation’s premiere talents.
Having already worked with a slew of high-profile directors and noted auteurs, Lawrence may yet get the chance to work with the one she idolises above all others. However, wherever Woody Allen goes, controversy tends to follow not too far behind.
While several of the filmmaker’s former collaborators have since distanced themselves from him in a personal and professional capacity, Lawrence has yet to walk back her outspoken adoration. After he caught wind of her saying, “I worship Woody Allen”, the three-time Oscar winner admitted he “could probably do something with her, or she would do something with me, is really what the story would be”.
Were the two to ever work together, then it would need to be on one of Allen’s less mainstream projects, at least if her opinion on Midnight in Paris is any indication. “I know he always gets sceptical when his movies go mainstream,” she informed Rotten Tomatoes, “But I love that one”.
Revealing she was “blown away” the first time she saw it, Lawrence conceded that “it might be my favourite movie now”. Expanding on its merits, she described Midnight in Paris as “funny, it was inventive, imagination, and dresses, and all of our favourite writers”. Going one step further – beyond stating “Owen Wilson was hilarious” – she labelled it as “just perfection”.
The fantasy comedy became the biggest hit of Allen’s career when it was released in 2011, earning upwards of $150million at the global box office. In addition, it won him the third Oscar of his career in the ‘Best Original Screenplay’ category, which was its only success from four nominations including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’.
Although he’s released nine more features since then, none of them have captured the imagination or attention of the wider cinemagoing public to a similar level as Midnight in Paris. Lawrence was so won over that she’s happy to call it her favourite movie of all time, but whether that mutual appreciation eventually turns into a project together remains to be seen.
