Self-consciously clever, but also entertaining

Rating: 8/10 (5 November 2016)

Writer Gil loves Paris, his fiancée not so much. So when Gil finds a time warp which drops him into Paris of the 1920s and, in particular, in among the artistic intelligentsia he so admires, he finds himself torn, especially when he begins to fall in love with Picasso's mistress. But the present-day beckons: he has commitments, but he may also find a way into the heart of the woman he is coming to love.
Woody Allen often annoys me, but the self-aware intellectualism which often spoils his films for me is here turned to entertaining use as the 1920s artists and intellectuals become vibrant scene-dressing and, in some cases, essential plot elements. The script is fun, and the lack of any explanation for the movement between eras matters not at all.
We know what's going to happen, of course - the mismatch between Gil and fiancée is gaping - but getting there is good fun. It is interesting to see Owen Wilson playing Woody Allen instead of himself, and the rest of the cast do fine.
And Paris looks lovely, filmed in oversaturated colours.