The Magic of Paris

Rating: 9/10 (29 November 2011)

The successful Hollywood screenplay writer Gil Pender(Owen Wilson) is spending vacation in Paris with his fiancée Inez (Rachael McAdams) and her parents since his future father-in-law is doing a merging business with a French company. Gil is an aspirant writer that loves Paris, and dreams on living in the city after getting married with Inez. Further, the romantic Gil believes that the golden age of Paris was in the 20's and he loves to walk on the rain through the streets of the City of Light.
When the shallow Inez meets her former boyfriend, the pseudo-intellectual Paul (Michael Sheen) with his girlfriend Carol (Nina Arianda), they spend sometime together visiting touristic places. In the night, they drink wine in a party and Paul invites the couple to go dancing with Carol and him. However, Gil prefers to return walking alone to the hotel. At midnight, an old car stops and the passengers invite him to go a party and sooner he realizes that he is back to the 20's, where he meets his favorite writers, musicians and artists and lives his dream.
"Midnight in Paris" is another little masterpiece of Woody Allen, who returns to the genre of fantasy of "The Purple Rose to Cairo" to disclose his alter-ego Gil that falls in love for Paris. The metaphoric tale uses the magic of Paris to help the writer Gil to find his connection with the unsatisfactory real world and to live the life that he really wants. He learns that what would be the golden age for him, might not be for those who live in those years since life is not perfect at all.
The film begins with a tour through the wonderful Paris, and has a marvelous cinematography unusual in Woody Allen's films. The performances are top-notch, with cameo of great actors and actresses, but I loved Owen Wilson, who is speaking in the same way Woody Allen does, Marion Cotillard and Kathy Bates.
The soundtrack with (1) Let's do it – Cole Porter; (2) Si tu vois ma mère – Sidney Bechet; (3) You do something to me – Cole Porter; (4) Ain't she sweet – Enoch Light and the Light Brigade (5) Charleston – Enoch Light and the Light Brigade; (6) La Conga Blicoti – Jospéhine Baker; (7) You've Got That Thing – Cole Porter (8) Cancan – Offenbach; and (9) Parlez moi d'Amour – Juliette Greco; is nostalgic and magnificent. There are many jokes and my favorite is Gil suggest Buñuel to think about a film with aristocrats trapped in a room without finding a way out. However, this film demands a minimum culture and sensitivity to be appreciated and this is probably the reason of a few bad reviews. My vote is nine.
Title (Brazil): "Meia-Noite em Paris" ("Midnight in Paris")
Note: On 23 November 2016, I saw this film again.