Flick of The Day: Midnight In Paris

The Daily Flick is a big fan of Woody Allen having previously reviewed three of his classics Hannah & Her Sisters, Radio Days and Manhattan. It would be fair to say that the 70's and 80's were Allen's creative heyday before he entered a largely barren period in the 90's. Thankfully, the last few years have seen a return to form with 2005's London set Match Point being followed by a string of successes like Vicky Christina Barcelona, Whatever Works, and today's flick of the day and his biggest hit ever, Midnight in Paris.

Midnight in Paris

Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams are a young couple tagging along on a business trip in Paris with McAdams parents. Wilson is Gil, a bored Hollywood screenwriter who dreams of moving to Paris to be a novelist and McAdams is his vacuous fiancée Inez. Inez has no time for Gil's fantasy of living in Paris in the 1920's, an era he feels is Paris at its best. Her parents are equally disapproving, a fine waspish turn from Mimi Kennedy as her Mother and a hilariously right wing Kurt Fuller as her father. While sightseeing they bump into some of Inez friends including Michael Sheen as a boorish and pedantic academic who delights in taking pot-shots at Gil while talking at length. Gil manages to extricate himself from this group and walk the streets of Paris as night falls. As the clock strikes midnight, a 1920's car pulls up and he is beckoned inside by the revellers. Much to his surprise it is F Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda and they take him on a tour of the bohemian nightspots of 1920's Paris. Along the way he meets Hemingway and Cole Porter and before the night is out has a promise from Hemingway to have Gertrude Stein played by the always watchable Kathy Bates read his novel. Gil begins to spend each night wandering Paris until at midnight he is dragged off to his fantasy much to the displeasure of Inez. He soon meets Picasso and Salvador Dali and his quirky friends, while the music plays and the night is young. He meets and gradually falls for a beautiful young woman played by Marion Cotillard. Soon he is faced with the choice of staying in his fantasy or coming back to reality.

The really enjoyable part of this film is, apart from the many fine performances, is the nostalgia for Paris in the 1920's. The city of light is lit up by the stars of the jazz age like Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Cole Porter. They are as witty and charming as you had hoped and Owen Wilson's fumbling naturalness carries him along. You can just sit there and let this wash over you and yet if anything the heart of the story is a warning about the perils of too much nostalgia. As Wilson's Gil gets dragged into his favourite period at the expense of his present, it becomes apparent that people are always harking back to a golden age. Marion Cotillard's Adriana longs for the Paris of the 1890's, La Belle Epoque while Gauguin and Degas long for the Renaissance. The lesson is that people long for the past to escape their present.

There is much to admire here and it is surely one of Allen's funniest comedies in years with a number of knowing references to his homeland of today,

Gil: I would like you to read my novel and get your opinion. 

Ernest Hemingway: I hate it. 

Gil: You haven't even read it yet. 

Ernest Hemingway: If it's bad, I'll hate it. If it's good, then I'll be envious and hate it even more. You don't want the opinion of another writer.

Overall, it is the film's feel good atmosphere that carries it along,the historical figures welcome Gil with open arms. It is always a pleasure to see Paris on screen and even the message of the film is told subtly and gently.

In conclusion then, its a fine film, perhaps Woody Allen's best in many a year. A bright and funny script leads you into the romance of Paris and there are some fine turns from Wilson, Cotillard and Kathy Bates. Well worth a look.