Midnight in Paris (2011)

Dir: Woody Allen
Writer: Woody Allen
Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Kathy Bates

I remember seeing this movie in the theater last June with my best friend Kelly and my dad. I knew hardly anything about the plot, just that the trailer showed off a great cast and there's nothing I don't love about a movie set in Paris - one of those cities I have felt romantic about all my life, despite never having traveled there. It's all the cinema's fault, really, what with Before Sunset, Moulin Rouge, Amelie, and the Godard and Truffaut and Deneuve.

There's also something about the 'oldness' of Paris. Living in the United States, there's not exactly castles and centuries-old monuments at every turn. Paris, like many parts of Europe I've seen in films, looks like it's out of another era. Which is the perfect setting for this movie.

Owen Wilson plays the screenwriter Gil Pender, who loves Paris and is trying to complete his novel. His novel, and he as a person, seem to revolve around the idea (and ideals) of nostalgia. His fiancé - played to wonderfully bitchy effect by Rachel McAdams - is not amused by Paris, nostalgia, or his attempts at being a novelist (she prefers his lucrative "hack of a screenwriter" career).

I've not been a fan of Woody Allen films for a while - their protoganists, even when not played by him, are usually just as neurotically annoying (save for Vicky Cristina Barcelona), but Wilson plays those neuroses down with his own brand of charm and wonder. I was, indeed, charmed by the whole film. Part of that was the locale, but the other part was the inspiration reverberating across the screen - the characters, the scenes, the glee in partaking of the time-travel adventure with Gil. Yes, time-travel.

To see Gil wander into the good company of the 1920s Paris literary and art scene, was at once shocking to me as someone who had no inkling of the plotline from the trailer (best trailer I've seen in a while in retrospect!) and also as someone who loves literature and art and historical inside jokes. I laughed, a lot.

The movie was wonderfully fun, and I enjoyed the overarching theme about missing the present while being stuck in the past. All of the acting was superb (from Michael Sheen's pedantic character to Alison Pill's Zelda Fitzgerald, it was a great ensemble) and the writing and directing were near perfect. One of my favorite movies of 2011, and perhaps ever.

The good news is that my husband, Jesse, has surprised me with a trip to Paris next month, which was part of the reason I re-watched this. I cannot wait to walk along the Seine like Gil, wait on those steps at the Sacre Coeur, and maybe, just once, feel like I'm in a different time.

The Best: While Wilson was a great protagonist, the real scene-stealer was Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway. He brought to life the giant persona and wordsmith - he spoke as he wrote, it would seem, and I loved it.

Fact: I don't always agree with film critic Roger Ebert (though I love him!), but I just wanted to share a quote from his review of this movie, which I completely agree with - "There is nothing to dislike about it. Either you connect with it or not. I'm wearying of movies that are for 'everybody' – which means, nobody in particular. Midnight in Paris is for me, in particular, and that's just fine with moi."

Rating: ********** (10 out of 10)