Delightful travel through time with a message

Rating: 9/10 (25 June 2011)

It's hard to write a review of this without giving away some secrets.
Gil (Owen Wilson) is a successful, young Hollywood screen writer but he yearns to be a respected author and is writing (& rewriting) a novel. He's engaged to Inez (McAdams), the daughter of wealthy California parents who bring Inez and Gil along on their business trip to Paris. Gil is fascinated to see the bistros frequented by Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, Picasso, etc., while Inez is more interested in shopping for items for the home they'll soon make back in California. She wants Gil to just stick with his so-far successful and lucrative career rather than aspire to greater literary worth; Gil seriously proposes they live in Paris awhile (hoping its ambiance will improve his writing?) but Inez will visit only as a tourist.
Late one night, after several drinks, they go their separate ways for the evening--Inez off with mutual friends, Gil walking back to their hotel. As the clock strikes 12, a '20s Peugot taxicab careens to a stop beside Gil; it contains Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald and they invite Gil to hop in and party with them and their friends.
Gil does so, and on following midnights he continues to meet and socialize with them and their friends: the writers, artists, and famous denizens of that 1920s/30s Paris "golden age" era: Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates) & Toklas, Hemingway, Picasso, "Tom" (T.S.) Eliot, Josephine Baker, Luis Bunuel, Cole Porter, Dali, etc., all of whom vanish each dawn.
IMO, Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams were each excellent in their roles discovering their different values.
Hearing earlier reviews of this film, I was a little leery of seeing it fearing I'd miss too much since I wasn't deeply familiar with the writings of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, etc.
Not a problem; a rough understanding of those two adds a lot of enjoyment. Knowing something of famous artists & cultural figures of that period adds more.
I'm sure Woody enjoyed tinkering with time travel a great deal. He did NOT have Eliot say he'd been 'walking on a beach with his trousers rolled' (famous lines from Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock") but he sprinkled similar, more clever things, such as having Gil suggest to Luis Bunuel, the film director, the unique plot of one of Bunuel's later, famous movies ("Exterminating Angel").
Gil's not the only time traveler--a friend in that '20s era to whom Gil's become quite attracted prefers the earlier "La Belle Epoch" and, in the visit to that period he makes with her, he (& we) get a glimpse of Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Gauguin, and Paris night life that delivers the film's message to both Gil and us.
This may be a 6/10 for some who like Woody Allen movies but are unacquainted with the prominent cultural icons of that period. But for most of those somewhat familiar with them, it'll be much higher.
Not a GREAT film but a VERY delightful, tasty confection.