Woody like Paris

Rating: 8/10 (6 September 2013)

At school, children are made to read Shakespeare and told that it is good for them.
As you get older, critics tell you to watch Woody Allen films because it's good for you. While you think my word that was a chore and that is watching one of his more acclaimed film from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In the last decade Allen has spent more time making films in Europe with mixed results although I liked Match Point and Scoop.
Midnight in Paris allows him to give us a picture postcard portrait of Paris.
It is funny, whimsical, has time travel and concludes that it is better to live in the now than hark back to a distant, mythical golden age in the past.
Owen Wilson plays an aspiring liberal novelist having a break in Paris with his fiancée and her wealthy Tea Party supporting parents.
Whilst having a stroll on his own one evening and getting lost, he gets into a vintage car and is transported to the 1920s where he parties with Scott Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, Ernest Hemingway and the like.
The events stir up his creative juices and realises that he needs to confront issues in his present life.
Owen Wilson takes a break from his normal comedy films to do his turn for Woody Allen and acquits himself well. He is outshone by the cameos from Adrien Brody, Tom Hiddleston, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates who play famous artists and writers and muses from the past.
Once the film gets going, it is enthralling, maybe too much of a tourist advert for Paris but it is nice to see Woody having casual fun.