Midnight in Paris (2011) **1/2

Rating: 6/10 (13 June 2011)

Another small and charming romantic comedy from the always-reliable Woody Allen that's becoming harder to find in a sea of overblown, overlong, special effects bonanzas. It's a story of a young modern-day American writer named Gil (Owen Wilson), spending time in France with his fiancé (Rachel McAdams) and her parents, who is disenchanted with life in the 21st Century and longs for the better things of the past. His girl and prospective in-laws don't understand and are downright dismissive of him. One night Gil gets the unexpected thrill of his life when he boards a magical cab which time warps him back into the glorious 1920's where he becomes elated at meeting many of his idols all conveniently in the same place at the same time (Cole Porter, Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Salvador Dali, Gertrude Stein). Owen Wilson is pretty good at playing what basically comes down to Woody Allen himself (I could easily see Allen in the part, but he's almost 80 these days so he has young actors doing his nebbish schtick for him). This is a cute enough movie that's worth seeing at least one time. Woody has tapped into similar romantic territory before, so it's not really very new for his regular fans. I can't say I agree with his unoriginal moral of the tale though: that in the long run, "the good old days" are supposedly a fantasy, and we will ultimately find out that the past was no great shakes either. (I'd beg to differ there, Woody.) **1/2 out of ****