Another cute, but somewhat over-rated, Allen film

Rating: 6/10 (22 January 2012)

Woody Allen, like most directors, has had some moments on pure perfection ("Match Point") and pure garbage ("Shadows and Fog"), but as much as I have the utmost respect for the man, I wouldn't say I am a fan, I just have merely loved a couple of his movies, hated a few others, and there are many I am sure I haven't seen or are somewhat indifferent about.
However, "Midnight in Paris," for sure, despite being one of his most commercially successful films ever, is not one of his best works. Despite his Golden Globe win for Best Screenplay, this is not the best Screenplay of the year, nor is it one of Allen's best. And despite his Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical, Owen Wilson's performance is nothing more than acceptable. However, despite the inclusion of Rachel McAdams, I found this to be an alright little film.
Wilson plays Gil, a screenplay writer who decides he wants to venture into more serious literature and write a novel. While in Paris with his new fiancÃ©e, Inez, and her parents, Gil begins to question how he really feels about his future wife, played by the always-annoying McAdams, after getting slightly drunk and being abandoned on the streets of Paris by her and her friends only to be randomly picked up by a strange taxi just after midnight, transporting him to Paris in the 20s...a period Gil has always fantasized about.
While transported, he meets the likes of F.Scott Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker, Cole Porter, Salvador Dali, Ernest Hemingway, among others and even gets his novel critiqued by Gertrude Stein, all the while falling for a woman he meets named Adriana (played by the lovely Oscar-winning Marion Cotillard)...and thus leading him to wonder how he truly feels about the overbearing, non-too-supportive Inez.
"Midnight in Paris" is a cute little film, just like many Allen films, but is hardly a terribly significant cinematic entry and thus, I am not so sure the numerous accolades it has been given, including the Golden Globe, are really deserving. It's a fine film but, for me, ultimately forgettable.