Woody's Back!!!

Rating: 10/10 (28 June 2011)

I actually had the rare pleasure of seeing Midnight in Paris last night without reviews, trailers , or peoples comments...what a treat! I knew minutes into the film that Woody Allen was back and in rare form, the jazzy intro music, the polaroid like filtering of the film and the intellectual small talk all reminded me of the smell of "momma's" cooking before you even saw the food...intoxicating. Midnight in Paris is a revelation, a revelation in the transformation of Owen Wilson into Woody's avatar, but this new Woody has overcome his good old neurosis and parleyed it into a charming innocence last seen in Tom Hanks in "Big". I was grinning from ear to ear as Wilson's character Gil began to nervously babble "a la Woody" when caught in an awkward moment...did Woody micro manage this scene or did Wilson just nail it? Even the transitions to the 1920's were seamless, believable if not down right natural...I'm tempted next time I'm in Paris to hang around at that very spot at midnight and hope to catch a ride with the revelers. I think this movie was therapy for Woody, he questioned himself many times through out the film but unlike his past movies, this time he knows the answer and made sure the audience knew as well. My only small critique of the film is that Rachel McAdams broke out from the girl next door mold and really wet my appetite as the impatient and bland brat, but I was left wanting more...no fault of hers due to the limited amount of screen time she got, I'll always wonder if there were more scenes of her that were edited out and might show up in a future DVD.