With "Midnight in Paris," Woody Allen delivers one of his best films in years, having made a beguiling homage to the City of Lights and the literary greats that lived there in the 1920s.
Gil (Owen Wilson) is a successful but unsatisfied Hollywood screenwriter who dreams of being a novelist. Inez (Rachel McAdams) is his pushy fiancée who likes her plush Hollywood life. The couple goes to Paris with Inez's snobby, right wing parents John (Kurt Fuller) and Helen (Mimi Kennedy). While in Paris, Gil and Inez run into Paul (Michael Sheen), Inez's pedantic, know-it-all friend and Paul's nondescript, but adoring girlfriend Carol (Nina Arianda). Gil is clearly at odds with each of them. The tension is palatable, but controlled as each character serves as a foil for Allen to show his laser sharp wit, a bit of wisdom and a few jokes at the expense of the Tea Party for good measure. It is with these people that Gil sees the sights of Paris.
The images of Paris are the typical picture post card view of the city; they aren't the most interesting or revealing shots. But the film isn't a tour guide of Paris; it is an homage to the spirit of the city, the mystic and the nostalgia that makes Allen's Paris so great. In Allen's Paris the spirits of Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), Ernest Hemmingway (Corey Stoll), F. Scott (Tom Hiddleston) and Zelda (Alison Pill) Fitzgerald, Salvador Dali (Adrien Brody), Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, and T.S. Eliot dance to the sounds of Cole Porter and celebrate the Golden Age. One night after a few drinks too many Gil stumbles on a bewitched corner. As the clocks strikes midnight a vintage car magically appears, picks him up and transports him to the 1920s. And Gil, who desperately wants to get away from the present, finds refuge in the past.
Gil, excited by his find, tries to bring Inez along the next night, but she balks and goes home. From this point on, Gil suffers the company of Inez's friends and family by day, but dashes off for his "evening walk" and the company of his literary heroes by night. Gil meets the dazzling beauty Adrianna (Marion Cotillard) on one of his evening excursions and soon begins to question the merit of his relationship with Inez. Each night Gil returns to his friends and they give him advice about his career, critique his writing, make pointed observations about his love life and debate the merits of the past versus the present.
Wilson does a surprisingly good Allen impersonation. He delivers the auteur’s phrasing and intonation in a way that is comical, but not over the top. McAdams and Sheen are both perfectly annoying, as they are meant to be. The entire supporting cast is solid. Bates makes Stein approachable; while Stoll and Brody are hysterical stand-outs as Hemmingway and Dali.
"Midnight in Paris" will be a sure hit for Allen’s core audience, a breath of fresh air for those who believe that he has missed the comic mark in his last few films and a pleasant surprise for those who are unfamiliar with either Allen, Paris or his legendary friends.
DIRECTOR: Woody Allen SCREENWRITER: Woody Allen PRODUCERS: Javier Mendez, Jack Rollins CAST: Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Owen Wilson RUN TIME: 94 minutes MPAA RATING: PG-13
