Movies Reviews

Midnight in Paris – Movie Review

By Anne Brodie May 20, 2011, 11:52 GMT

The latest romantic comedy from Woody Allen focuses on a family traveling to Paris for business, including a young engaged couple whose lives are changed throughout the journey. ...more

Woody Allen’s latest love letter to Paris has the odd effect of making us fall in love not just with Paris but with Woody, all over again. 

The film that opened the Cannes film festival last week is his strongest in recent years (decades) It’s an airy, light, delicious and grand confection whose genius is that it has a solid underlying reality about our connection to one another and being present in our own lives and times.

Sure there are strong elements of a travelogue but isn’t that one of the reasons we love film? Stepping out of the here and now to a better, prettier, and idealized then and there?   Our hero Gil (Owen Wilson) steps out of the here and now of a Paris break and into another world, one he dreamed of, one that inspired him to come to Paris in the first place.  Literally. 

We step into the supernatural world with him as he meets the heroes of culture in Paris in those fabled twenties.   Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Toulouse Lautrec, Man Ray, Louis Buñuel, Salvador Dali and more - a parade of cultural events, in the flesh.  It’s a supernatural that is whimsical and saturated with meaning as a dream would be and yet it’s funny.

Wilson creates likeable characters, and his considerable charm works well as Gil, an American in Paris.  He tones down the “ugly American” trope with good nature and a true connection to the city and its past.  He’s knowledgeable about art, literature, pop culture, tolerant of his harpy of a fiancée (Rachel McAdams) and he has a rich imagination.  He has the feeling Paris is going to mean something to him. He is under its spell and by now we are too.

When Gil suggests to his fiancée that they vacate Hollywood and the screenwriting biz and decamp to Paris permanently, her put down tells us she may not be Miss Right. Maybe it’s the street vendor he met in real life or the party girl he met at a 20’s Paris soirée.  But one thing is sure to Gill – the key to his future lies in the City of Light. 
 
Allen has one of his hottest casts in years – including Oscar winners and series TV stars.  Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Carla Bruni, Michael Sheen, Adrien Brody, Law & Order LA’s Corey Stoll, Alison Pill, Thor’s Tom Hiddleston provide a lively and inviting circle that inhabits both the past and the present. 

Allen first tried to shoot Midnight in Paris in 2006 but the prohibitive cost shut him down.  He returned and the result is well, glorious.  Thanks to the credible cast, scripting, music and art direction, you leave the theatre, floating on a gossamer cloud of cinematic pleasure. 

The Woodman is back.  Allen is at his mischievous, witty, biting, alluring, madcap best.   And he’s created a story that is absolutely original.

Midnight in Paris is a champagne cocktail dream of a film. It’s unfailingly witty, wise and warm, grown up, literate, mature, satisfying and complete.   Allen may have hit a high in Midnight in Paris not seen since the Annie Hall days.

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35mm romantic comedy
Written and directed by Woody Allen
Opens: May 20
Runtime: 100 minutes
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some sexual references and smoking
Country: US / France
Language: English/French