Friday Review-Midnight in Paris

When it comes to Woody Allen it's hard not to have mixed feelings, somehow he manages to be both insightful and annoying, yet Midnight in Paris manages to be 99% charming. Owen Wilson stars as Gil, a writer who is obsessed with the Paris of the 1920's. His dialogue is definitely Woody Allen-esque, at times too much so. However, Gil is also sweet and it's hard not to root for him. Gil is engaged to Inez (Rachel McAdams)  who is having an affair with Paul (Michael Sheen), and these two are insufferably pedantic, to use the word provided by Carla Bruni's tour guide role. To escape his ridiculous in laws, who spend most of their time talking about money and supporting conservative politics,  Gil wanders the streets of Paris at night, only to be magically transported to the 1920's Paris he so longs for. There he meets F. Scott Fitzgeald, Salvador Dalí (hilariously portrayed by Adrien Brody), Ernest Hemingway and many other icons of this age. It's not hard to be, like Gil, completely lured into this world of writers and artists, the sense of being at a time of great change and great art. The art direction is truly stunning and every detail glows. But Midnight in Paris is brutally self aware and knows all to well that nostalgia is a weapon at worst and at best misguided. According to the film, we are always at a time of great change and great art. While time traveling Gil meets and falls in love with Adriana, a charming and irresistible muse (Marion Cotillard). Adriana does not see anything magical about the 1920's and yearns for the Belle Époque, which she feels is the real time of perfection for Paris. One night the two are transported back to the Belle Époque where Adriana decides to stay but Gil, and a begrudging audience, learn their lesson. Every age appears great from the outside but nostalgia leads to missing what's important in the present. While the lesson seems preachy writing it here, Midnight in Paris is anything but preachy, rather it's a charming homage to a beautiful city in all it's ages. It also creates a world in which innocence and enthusiasm are the only two things required to experience such a magical city, while quasi-intellectualism and excessive wealth are only hindrances. Allen has created a film that is a love letter to a city, an age and to art and travel in all it's forms, and it's an enjoyable one at that.