Midnight in Paris

A magical film about Paris

Sony Pictures Classics

OWEN WILSON and Carla Bruni in "Midnight in Paris."

Maybe because I recently visited Paris, I was quickly drawn to Woody Allen’s romantic comedy “Midnight in Paris.

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First off, Owen Wilson can be an annoying actor. Heck, he gets annoying in this film.


But  with the backdrop of Paris, and the plot and the dialogue, I soon forgot any annoyances.

 Even though many characters in the “modern Paris” part are annoying. They are snooty, one upping each other.


Wilson and his girlfriend, played by Rachel McAdams, are staying in Paris. He operates a nostalgia shop back in the states, selling old radios and the like. (Only in movies can you operate a little shop and make enough money for an extended trip to Paris.)


McAdams plays Inez, a rich girl whose parents show up in Paris. Mimi Kennedy plays her snooty mom who likes only expensive jewelry and Kurt Fuller is the dad. He doesn’t like his future son-in-law and hires a detective to follow him during his long nightly walks.


The couple also run into her old friend, played by Nina Arlanda, and her boyfriend, played by Michael Sheen.


Sheen’s character is especially annoying, because he knows everything about everything, from history to art to wine. He argues with French tour guides.


So it is a welcome respite when Wilson’s character decides to ditch the gang and walk back to the hotel. Where he ends up getting lost.
But a 1920s-era taxi pulls up and offers Wilson’s character a ride. And that’s when the magic begins.


He ends up at a hotel where he meets F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda, played by Alison Pill and Tom Hiddleston, as well as Ernest Hemmingway, Gertrude Steid, Salvador Dali, T.S. Elliot and a host of intellectuals and artists. Yep, his taxi takes him back in time to the era and the place he most covets, Paris in the 1920s.


And there the usually goofy Wilson gets to hobnob with the elites, the people who are his heroes, living in their era, young and witty and drunk.


Pill as Zelda is especially fun and entertaining.


Every day, Wilson returns to his life of modern antagonists, knowing at night he will catch that taxi and go back to a more magical time and place, with people he has become friends with, who know and respect him and don’t downgrade him for his opinions.


Time travel movies are difficult to do and often come out worse for the wear. But Allen’s talents shine through. And even though he doesn’t appear in the film, it has his trademark characters and dialog.


I was especially impressed with Carey Stoll as Hemingway, who stresses novels about strength and honor and being valiant and not fearing death.


There are some scenes that could have been omitted. The Wilson character tries to steal his girlfriend’s pearl earrings to give to his 20s friend, Adriena, and that ends disastrously. That should have been cut. It is totally out of character and doesn’t progress the plot.


But overall, it’s a good story, it’s Woody Allen, it’s lots of loving shots of Paris, there’s conflict, there’s romance. It’s a pretty nice package, all tied with a pretty bow.


Annoying, yes, but pretty special as well.



MIDNIGHT IN PARIS


Directed and written by Woody Allen


Rated PG-13


Runtime: 100 minutes


9 stars out of 10