A quite brilliant comic fantasy.

Rating: 10/10 (18 May 2012)

I have long been a fan of Woody Allen's films. "Annie Hall" and "Hannah and Her Sisters" are two of my all-time favourites. But Allen has surpassed himself with this absolutely brilliant comedy about the pitfalls of nostalgia. "Midnight in Paris" is quite simply one of the best films I have seen for years. It is funny, charming and thought-provoking; it is brilliantly acted by all concerned; its soundtrack is superb; and it is masterfully scripted and directed.
Gil Pender (played by Owen Wilson) is a Hollywood screenwriter who yearns to be a serious and successful novelist. He believes he has been born in the wrong era. He is a devotee of the 1920s and wishes that he could have lived in Paris during that culturally creative decade when his literary and artistic idols were there and at the peak of their powers. While on holiday in modern-day Paris with his fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her parents, Gil goes for a stroll on his own late at night. While doing so, he gets picked up by a vintage Peugeot. He then finds himself transported back to the era of his dreams, during which he is introduced to the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Gertrude Stein and Cole Porter (to name just some of the characters he meets). This happens on other nights and Gil eventually strikes up an intimate relationship with Picasso's French mistress Adriana (Marion Cotillard). However, many of the idols whom he meets are themselves nostalgic for what they regard as an earlier golden decade, the 1890s (the beginning of the period known as La Belle Epoque). This makes Gil wonder about the wisdom generally of yearning for an apparently better past at the expense of making the most of the present and of moving forward.
"Midnight in Paris" is an intelligent and very funny film. The character of Ernest Hemingway (brilliantly played by Corey Stoll) is given a number of very amusing one-liners, including one about self-effacement being an unmanly character trait. He also says of Picasso at one point that "he's great but he's no Miro"! There is also a very funny debate between Gertrude Stein (played by Kathy Bates) and Picasso about the merits of the latter's portrait of Adriana. The information Gil gleans from this enables him to score points against Paul (Michael Sheen), a pompous and pretentious American friend of Inez who happens to be visiting Paris at the same time. There are many other very funny lines and scenes in a film that is a brilliant amalgam of comedy, romance and fantasy. The music is wonderful - Cole Porter's song "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" features prominently. And I particularly liked the opening 2-3 minutes of the film, which consist entirely of shots of the beautiful city of Paris to the accompaniment of a plaintive jazz soundtrack. "Midnight in Paris" is a superb film. 10/10.