Getting lost with the Lost Generation

Rating: 7/10 (4 July 2011)

Midnight in Paris is one of Woody Allen's better efforts over the past decade which for the most part has been repetitive and erratic. There are some bumpy moments and Allen sometimes allow his conceit to become a little too precious and stretched but Owen Wilson as his scruffy alter ego does a commendable job of playing guide to the ride to the past and Allen does a good job of disguising the outcome late into the film.
Gil (Owen Wilson) is a Malibu screenwriter visiting Paris on a freebie with his fiancé's parents. Totally caught up in the past he pines for the romance of The Lost Generation and a desire to stay in the City of Lights and get caught in rain storms but squeeze Inez wants him back in sunny California churning out garbage for studios. One night, a bit tipsy, he takes a walk and gets lost. Attempting to get his bearings the clock strikes twelve and a vintage automobile pulls up with partying occupants who lure him in and back to Twenties Paris where he is introduced to the cream of the art world. He converses with the Fitgeralds, Hemingway, Picasso, Gertrude Stein among others as well as becoming infatuated with Pablo's mistress. Back in the Twenty-First Century things are becoming more abrasive with Inez and family. Gil now ponders whether he should return and remain in the previous century.
Things move slowly in Midnight as Allen declares his total love for the City of Lights with a ponderous travelogue opening before going voice over into the credits to establish almost immediately the strain between Gil and Inez. Tagging along with another couple Inez keeps up her demeaning ways ad nausea until we are rescued by time travel with Gil and the Montparnesse crowd but the novelty begins to thin, that is until Gil hangs out with the Surrealists (Luis Bunuel, Man Ray and a terrific cameo turn by Adrien Brody as Salvador Dali) and the pace and humor begin to finally pick-up as Gil attempts to straighten his backbone. Allen name drops to no end with his legendary characters. Making some esoteric comic inferences such as explaining the plot of The Exterminating Angel to a confused Bunuel that may not resonate with the audience at large but one doesn't need to be up on his 20th century art and literature to find a decent amount of humor in Midnight.
Owen Wilson is one of the best protagonist fits for Allen in some time but problems persist for his female characters with all three romantic interests ( Rachel McAdams, Marian Cotillard Nina Arianda) somewhat cliché and underdeveloped. Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy as the parents do a fine job of allowing Allen to get in his jabs about conservative, ugly Americans while Corey Stoll as Papa Hemingway does a wonderfully stoic take on his macho ethos. Carla Bruni, wife of French President Sarkozy appears as a translator which is probably not a bad method of getting a country's cooperation to allow you to shoot a Keatonesque slap stick scene in Versailles Hall of Mirrors.
Allen has done time and space travel before. He's done it better ( Zelig, The Purple Rose of Cairo) funnier (Sleeper) and worse (Scoop) but in today's era of devalued cinema Midnight in Paris offers decent respite from the frat house moronic humor and computer generated cuddly creatures monopolizing screens at the multiplex and perhaps reinforcing our understanding of why Gil wants out of these times.