Midnight in Paris
Woody Allen has somewhat of an uneven resume, seemingly giving us one bad film for every good one, but he has struck gold once again with his newest gem, Midnight in Paris, which has enough wit and charm to make us forget about past failures like Cassandra's Dream and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.
The story centers on Gil (Owen Wilson), a relatively successful Hollywood screenwriter who tags along on a trip to Paris with his fiancee, Inez (Rachel McAdams), and her snobbishly wealthy parents. Gil is a romantic who, unlike his fellow travelers, prefers walking in the rain to taking a cab because "Paris is more beautiful in the rain." He envisions himself sipping wine at an old-fashioned cafe and finishing his first novel in the midst of cobblestone streets and winding canals, finding inspiration in the same things that influenced writers of the Lost Generation decades before. However, when the clock strikes midnight during one of Gil's solitary strolls through the dimly lit streets (solitary because Inez would rather spend her night dancing with a pedantic professor, Paul), he gets a closer look at the 1920s than he ever thought possible.
As Gil lingers beneath the bell tower, an old-fashioned Peugeot pulls up, and a rowdy group of strangers within invite Gil to join their party. Two finely-dressed passengers introduce themselves as F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and Gil initially thinks he's become the butt of a very elaborate joke. However, when Gil meets a drunk Ernest Hemingway putting his famously excessive machismo on display in a local bar, he realizes that these people are the real thing, not impersonators.
Each night, Gil gets into the same car as the clock strikes midnight and journeys back in time to the Jazz Age, a process which Allen wisely leaves unexplained. In this world of new possibilities, famous writers and artists make themselves known at every turn in ways that are always charming and often laugh-out-loud funny. While Allen aims these references at a well-read, intellectual audience, he manages to do so without being pretentious or alienating anyone with a less-than-firm grasp on literary or artistic history. The characters are so full of personality, so genuine in their quirkiness, that it does not matter if you've never seen a film by Luis Bunuel or read anything by Gertrude Stein. The timeless magic of Paris in the '20s is communicated, regardless of a viewer's knowledge of the arts.
That being said, Midnight in Paris is not exclusively a tribute to the city and its colorful past; it also raises philosophical questions that are as important today as they ever were. At one point, Gil describes his novel, which he has struggled to write due to his own identity crisis, as a story about "a guy who owns a nostalgia shop." And that's really what this movie is all about -- nostalgia and the illusions that come with it. Were the 1920s truly the Golden Age, or is Gil just romanticizing the past as a result of his dissatisfaction with the present? And is this not the natural mindset of every generation, to believe that one's present pales in comparison to some bygone era?
As Allen attempts to answer these questions, he purposely makes each character's moment in the spotlight seem all too short, making us wish we had more time with each of them. In this way, he allows us to sympathize with Gil's nostalgia and perhaps even feel it ourselves. This is certainly the case when we meet Gil's possible love interest, Adriana, played by the classically beautiful Marion Cotillard. She seems right at home in the role and lights up the screen, as she always does. The other cast members are similarly natural in their portrayals, especially Wilson, who alternates between an unassuming demeanor and an infectious kid-in-a-candy-store attitude with exceptional ease.
Midnight in Paris is not only a win for Allen, it's one of the best films so far this year. The movie is both intelligently written and skillfully acted (with a number of pleasantly surprising cameos). It also manages to be consistently funny and emotionally rewarding, as it pays tribute to a timeless city and shows us that the past never really dies.
Rating: 4.5/5