A sweetly sentimental movie with an excellent cast and script.

Rating: 9/10 (3 January 2012)

Woody Allen's script is an impressive one. One that he clearly took his time with. Midnight in Paris features an impressive cast of characters, an array of interesting sub plots, and a very sweet sense of nostalgia. The sequences of the roaring 20's after midnight are magical stuff set up with care by Allen. They balance sentimentality, comedy, romance, and drama on perfect keel. The movie places us under an irresistible spell, and the whole thing just flies by, never getting boring.
The way that Allen also writes his characters is wonderful stuff, and his incredible ensemble cast (Including Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Corey Stoll, Michael Sheen, and especially Alison Pill... the list goes on) bring out the most of their characters with total conviction. In particular, Adrien Brody has a hilarious cameo as a rhinoceros obsessed Salvador Dali.
The backdrop of Paris only heightens the movie's charm. Allen begins the film with a lovely, but somewhat draggy, four minute montage of the city, but I can't deny that it's a nice way to establish ambiance. Allen chooses fascinating aesthetic styles to further enhance the movie's nostalgic effect. The element that truly brings this out is Darius Khondji's cinematography, which Allen wanted to have a very wide range of warm colors to give a very flattering light. The color spectrum is gorgeous, no less than such a city as Paris deserves.
***1/2 out of ****