'Midnight in Paris' a true delight
Woody Allen's whimsical fantasy “Midnight in Paris” becomes a stylish lamentation on how human nature deprives us of fully living our lives in the best period of history we'll ever know: the present.
This cautionary movie argues that nostalgia can be a powerful force, and if we allow ourselves to romanticize the past unchecked, we run the risk of missing the specialness of being in our Now.
Allen fans should be delighted, for this cinematic confection celebrates a return to classic Woody, a work of imagination and mirth reminiscent of his “The Purple Rose of Cairo.”
“Midnight in Paris” revisits many of Allen's familiar touchstones — a neurotic writer protagonist, a disdain for intellectual poseurs, contempt for right-wingers, a bent romantic triangle, glib and witty banter — yet, this enchanting movie feels fresh and fun, as if Allen turned back the clock from before his fascination with London locales and felt comically inspired once again.
The story boasts the unlikeliest star to ever be cast as Allen's narrative surrogate: Owen Wilson, whose film persona has been closer to shallow stoners than hand-wringing, introspective intellectuals.
Here, Wilson's a perfect fit.
He plays Gil, a hack Hollywood script writer who harbors dreams of becoming a respected novelist.
He has arrived in Paris with his attractive, driven fiancee Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her affluent, staunchly Republican parents.
He and Inez also run into her old friend Paul (a superbly cast, bearded Michael Sheen), who finds no subject unworthy of his personal assessment and judgment.
While jazz gently floods the soundtrack, Gil waxes poetic about Paris in the 1920s and wishes he had lived during this magical period. Maybe he would have been inspired to become a great novelist.
Paul rolls his eyes and dismisses Gil's nostalgic yearnings as “Golden Age thinking.”
Up to now, Darius Khondji's cinematography has been brightly illuminated, almost harsh, with wide angles.
That changes one night while Gil wanders the cobblestone streets of Paris. The lighting dims as Khondji re-creates a darker, more mystical, more intimate City of Lights.
Gil sits down and hears a clock chime midnight. A vintage car slowly approaches, and its gleeful occupants merrily whisk the tipsy Gil off with them to a late-night party.
That's how Gil winds up meeting F. Scott Fitzgerald (played pitch-perfect by Tom Hiddleston) and his lovely wife, Zelda (Alison Pill), Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), Salvador Dali (Adrien Brody), Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo) and other famous writers and artists Gil has worshipped in his Parisian dream.
As he did in “Purple Rose” when Jeff Daniels' silent movie star steps off the silver screen into Mia Farrow's reality, Allen offers no plausible explanation for this time slip. Magical realism requires no reason.
Just a wish.
Maybe some romance.
Gil also meets the beguiling Adriana (“Inception” star Marion Cotillard), a painter's mistress, and a kindred spirit on a level much deeper than Gil could possibly suspect.
Stoll steals the movie as the blunt Hemingway with his manly man demeanor. Gil wants him to read his new novel. Hemingway gruffly refuses; but he passes it to Bates' Stein, who breathes comic life into every line she utters.
These bigger-than-life characters are clearly re-created not as they were, but as Gil imagines them to have been.
It would ill serve “Midnight in Paris” to reveal more about what happens in Allen's valentine to fantasy fulfillment.
It's charming and smart, and riddled with little joys.
Take the scene where Gil is surprised that Dali and Bunuel (Adien de Van) totally believe him when he informs them he's from the future.
After all, they remind him, they're surrealists.
<b>“Midnight in Paris”</b>
★ ★ ★ ½
<b>Starring: </b>Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody
<b>Directed by: </b>Woody Allen
<b>Other: </b>Opens at the Century Center and River East 21 in Chicago, the Evanston CineArts 6 and the Renaissance Place in Highland Park. A Sony Classics release. Rated PG-13 for sexual references, smoking. 94 minutes.