A sweet summer surprise

Rating: 9/10 (30 August 2011)

There are plenty of big, loud blockbusters making their way to a theater near you. 2011 is a little more lackluster than most. Still there is a little bit of originality left in Hollywood if you look for it and Midnight in Paris is a prime example.
Woody Allen's new film starts unassumingly with Owen Wilson doubling for Allen as a Hollywood hack unsure about his aspirations to become a real writer. What he is sure of is he loves Paris and has joined his fiancé (Rachel McAdams) and fiancé's parents on vacation pining to discover the city in spring. His fiancé however really just wants to shop. It's all pretty basic really, in fact by the fifteen minute mark I kind of wondered where the movie was going. Then Owen Wilson's character stumbles into a back street in Paris, the clock strikes midnight and he is coaxed into an antique car by a gaggle of garishly dressed people.
Inexplicably, Owen Wilson transports to 1920's Paris and literally walks in the shadows of his idols. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, T.S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein all make an appearance in what is sure to be an English slash Art major's wet dream. This movie must have been an absolute joy to make and shows a historical and literary depth that rivals Allen's Love and Death.
Truth be told, I don't consider myself an intellectual. I have never read Fitzgerald or T.S. Eliot and to be honest there were plenty of jokes that were just plain over my head. But there is still a genteel human touch and accessibility to this film that stimulated my mind without being pretentious.
The performances are great. Wilson makes for a good doppelganger to good ol' Woody, displaying the neuroticism the screenplay requires, but adding on a good dose of naivety that only Owen Wilson can provide. The real treat however comes from the actors playing historical figures. Kathy Bates is great as the no-nonsense Gertrude Stein and Corey Stoll as Hemingway is truly inspired; speaking in strong masculine prose and challenging everyone in earshot to a fistfight. Adrien Brody also makes an appearance as Salvador Dali which can be best described as absurdly hilarious.
Critics have been singing "Midnight's" praises but warning that the film isn't for everybody which is a shame. This movie can be for everyone, save little children. Sure the subject matter might be a little academic but the themes of living in the past and being the best version of yourself are universal.
As a Woody Allen fan, I can say that Midnight in Paris isn't his best but awfully close. It's funny, sweet and stimulating without being too intellectual. Unlike a lot of the movies I've seen in 2011, it's original. For those who don't want to spend their hard earned money on a record year in sequels go see Midnight in Paris.
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