Midnight in Paris is a confuse film

Rating: 5/10 (22 May 2014)

Midnight in Paris is a romantic, comedy and fantasy film, written and directed by Woody Allen. The film was released in 2011 in United States. It has famous actors as Owen Wilson, Marion Coillard and Rachel McAdams. However, is a boring, tedious and confusing film.
Firstly, the plot is not good. The story is about Gil (Owen Wilson), an American author and screenwriter, which always wanted to be a famous author (recognized by everyone). Once, he traveled with his wife Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her parents to Paris, where Gil stayed absolutely impressed (besides that Paris is an incredible city). He performs several night rides all alone. Furthermore, he discovered a magical and surprisingly thing, when the clocks stroke of midnight, he was transported to Paris of the 1920s (the time and place considered the best of all). This "travel" to the past made Gil spoke with several intellectuals and artists that he admires, as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.
Moreover, he fall in love with Adriana (Marion Coillard), a beautiful girl, but he could only see her after midnight (when he was transported to the past). This because she doesn't really exist (she had already died). Therefore, when he came back to the past, he could see the authors (because in 1920 they were still alive). In the end of the story, Inez discovered that Gil was in love with Adriana (she discovered by a private detective hired by Inez's fathers). As a result, Gil stayed alone, trying to understand what happened with his life (the ''travel'' after midnight, his experiences, his relation with Inez, etc).
As it is clear, the story is very confuse. It's very easy to get lost and people don't understand the main message. Besides Woody Allen is a spectacular screenwriter, he always want to send a message for people. However, the problem of the film is not the director, but is the plot, especially the chronology of facts and the knowledge that people must have before seeing it. Due to it, a person that didn't know about Paris and about famous intellectual and artists will undoubtedly not understand the film. Midnight in Paris is not a film that explain the facts. It just show them and don't explain about the artists, their life, what they have done, why they are important, etc. Consequently, it is quite difficult to understand the film, the relation between the main character (Gil) and the artists (each one specifically), and Gil's life (because past and present are mixed).
Moreover, even people that have this history knowledge, get lost. This because the film started showing the life of an important artist and then, suddenly, it changed and started to tell about another famous artist. As each artist has specifically characteristics, lifestyle, we didn't understand what Woody Allen pretend to say with it. Consequently, the person that is seeing it get really lost, she doesn't know exactly when he is in the past and when he is in the present because those times are mixed, making the film kind of incomprehensible.
Another relevant point is that the special effects are not so good. In the beginning of Gil's ''travel'' it is acceptable, but, the others special effects are really bad, and they don't contribute to the comprehension of the story (making the person, again, totally lost). Also, Gil's life is very confuse, sometime he is talking with some artist that has already died and sometime he is talking with her wife (there is a confuse communicate with past and present).
To sum up, the plot is relatively creative, but it is really confuse, it doesn't has chronological facts (always mix the present and the past), the special effects are really bad, and the film requires a history knowledge that some people haven't. In my point of view, a good film doesn't require people's prior knowledge, but take them into the story, as if the person were in the story.