Strong and Moving!

not as good as all the hype

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This is a really excellent film if only for the masterful and genuine performance of Dexter Gordon or the music itself which features other amazing jazz artists like Herbie Hancock. Gordon's performance is as good as any great character actor. The supporting cast is also excellent.The story is told in this really impressionistic and laid back way. It feels as though it takes its cue from the quality of hard bop jazz and the mindset of the main character. I don't want to spoil the ending but its beautifully restrained. You know what is coming and you figure out how it the end ultimately resolves but the filmmaker doesn't hit you on the head with the precise details of how.My only criticism is that the street sets looked a bit contrived and artificial but given the strength of the story, the commitment of the actors, especially Gordon and the amazing music, it really doesn't matter.

Filmmaker/jazz buff Bertrand Tavernier's story of an aging, alcoholic tenor sax man living in Paris works best when sticking to the music and steering clear of the jazz lover's anguished adulation. At the heart of the film is a compelling amateur performance by Dexter Gordon, a jazzman himself just doing what comes natural, playing a musician grown "tired of everything except the music." Gordon's ragged, melancholy voice and lazy mannerisms hold the episodic non-plot together, providing a measure of quiet relief from the histrionic outbursts of his number-one fan François Cluzet, who is forced to pour his heart and soul into lines like, "He is a great musician! A genius!" and, "Your music changed my life!" It may not hold much interest to anyone not already inclined toward the music of Bud Powell and Lester Young (to whom the film is dedicated), but die-hard aficionados will (like François) find it a small slice of jazz heaven.

I don't know how anyone could rave about this film. I thought it was excruciatingly long, slow and very, very boring. I gave it two stars out of ten.I must say that Dexter Gordon is one of my least favorite players of his generation and what fame he was able to garner probably comes more to do with his having outlived the rest of his contemporaries than it does with his musical accomplishments, but to focus so much attention on him and to have to listen to him hoarsely whisper or mumble his lines for over two hours was torture. And here was yet another example of "Ray" or "Walk the Line" syndrome - a biopic about a one-time talent who had become a derelict begging for drinks. Why are we supposed to find this kind of behavior interesting or entertaining? I was not touched and found it impossible to care about what happened to his character.I thought the music was very disappointing, and mostly because of Dexter Gordon. It seemed like he was holding everyone else back. He was appearing alongside a bunch of other guys, all known hotshots, who all looked like they came to play and Gordon could barely squawk out a few notes. In general, all the music was too slow, it barely held together and it was pretty much lifeless and dull. I was so disappointed, especially after the build-up this film got. I don't see how anyone with even the most cursory and superficial interest in jazz can call the music in this film "great jazz".I don't know what kind of a fetish or obsession this director had with jazz, but I thought all of the discussion on screen about the music sounded completely sophomoric and pretentious. It also bugged me greatly to hear Dexter Gordon's character speaking of the evolution of advanced harmony and some of the players who helped usher it forward with new technical and theoretical innovations and placing himself in the time line alongside the likes of Basie, Charlie Parker, etc. Of course, this was not Dexter Gordon talking, but his character, but it was irksome for me to hear Gordon, who is a second class jazz man, talk like he was the Son of God or something.The story line was tedious, what little plot that there was. Why this Francis character would ever get so worked up over the Dale Turner character didn't wash for me. Okay, if this was about the real-life relations between Bud Powell and Francis Paudras, I could see why he'd basically give his life over to help the guy, but from what was shown in this film, it landed like a lead turkey. I fault the director and also the whomever it was that made the terrible casting decision to use Dexter Gordon who, at 63, was way too old for the part. Powell would have been 34, Lester Young would have been 50 in 1959. Gordon seemed too physically challenged and barely able to speak so that it was painful to have to sit through his performance. Watching Gordon was like watching an old dog trying to get up the stairs.In a perverse irony, seeing Martin Scorcese on screen as the oily manager of Dale Turner was strangely humorous.For a film that is supposed to be anthemic and give a definitive view into the jazz world, 'Round Midnight misses the beat.

I am not a great fan of jazz, particularly not the Herbie Hancock kind where it is all jerky or the kind where there is no discernible melody, but the jazz in this film is pretty good on the whole. The musical highlight for me was How Long has this been Going On?What I really liked about the film was the unhurried pace. There was not really a plot at all, the only story being that the lead character went to Paris, stayed there for a while and befriended a fan and his daughter, and then went home again. It is such a relief to see a film like this -- they are few and very far between-- where you can watch each scene without wondering what specific piece of information you are supposed to absorb before you move on to the next scene. And the absence of a plot does not mean that the film had nothing to say. On the contrary, it was a film about friendship, specifically the friendship between Dale and Francis, and it was outstanding in its observation of their relationship.It's a truly lovely, meandering, thought-provoking and ultimately very moving portrayal of a part of life.